MANILA – The Philippines will host starting Monday a two-day international workshop on nuclear disarmament in which more than 50 world experts are expected to attend, a spokesman of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced.
Ed Malaya, the DFA spokesman, said the workshop is preparatory to the holding of the conference to review the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) scheduled in New York from May 3 to 28.
According to Malaya, the NPT came into effect in 1970 and aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, advance nuclear disarmament and promote cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Among the experts expected to attend the workshop, Malaya said, are Ambassador Sergio Duarte, the UN high representative for disarmament; US Ambassador Susan Burke, the special representative of US President Barack Obama; and Ambassador John Duncan, the arms control and disarmament envoy of the United Kingdom.
During the two-day workshop, Malaya said the experts are to discuss such topics as the nuclear programme of North Korea;an action plan on nuclear disarmament; negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons; and follow-up on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the US and Russia.
Malaya also said that Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo will lead the Philippine delegation, assisted by a team of experts, advisers and young diplomats.
They will join other delegates to the workshop from NPT state countries like the US, Russia, UK, Cuba, Iran, France, Germany and Egypt as well as their counterparts from six international organizations and six global non-government organizations, Malaya also reported.
At the same time, Malaysia disclosed the New York conference in May will be presided over by a Filipino, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, whose last diplomatic assignment was as the country’s envoy to the United Arab Emirates.
Cabactulan, also the assistant secretary for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, was elected president of the 2010 NPT review conference after he was endorsed to the post by the nine other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and 120 members of the Non-Aligned Movement.
In an interview with the “Philippine Daily Inquirer,†the country’s largest circulation daily, Cabactulan said that although the Philippines is not a nuclear power, it has a big stake in the issue as he pointed out that there are more than eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed abroad.
Of the total, Cabactulan said there are 2.4 million OFWs in the Middle East which has emerged as a problem area and which experts are pushing to declare as a nuclear-free zone.
“We rue the day when any of these nuclear weapons, in the hands or either states or private individuals, whose number and location we know nothing about,†the ambassador told the Inquirer.
More troublesome, he said, is that terror groups like the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) which have confirmed links with the Al Qaeda international network of Osama bin Laden have explored the nuclear option.
In turn, local and regional security experts have confirmed that the JI is also linked to the Abu Sayyaf militants in Mindanao, who have been held responsible for several kidnap-for-ransom cases involving Filipinos and foreigners and the killing of their victims.
“We will not wait for the day when the Jemaah Islamiyah has transferred nuclear know-how to the local militants,†Cabactulan told the Inquirer, referring to the Abu Sayyaf.
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