• Burmese
Saturday, July 12, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
25 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

President Urges Parliament to Back Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty

Nan Lwin by Nan Lwin
September 7, 2018
in Burma
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Myanmar President U Win Myint / President’s Office / Facebook

Myanmar President U Win Myint / President’s Office / Facebook

4.9k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

YANGON—Myanmar President U Win Myint is seeking lawmakers’ approval to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, with a final decision to be made next week in the Union Parliament.

Union Minister for International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin explained Myanmar’s stand on the abolition of nuclear weapons and the details of the president’s proposal to sign the prohibition treaty to lawmakers on Thursday in the Union Parliament.

“The government supports nuclear disarmament,” U Kyaw Tin said. He said the Myanmar government believed nuclear disarmament is the only way to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, and the use of such weapons, whether intentional or accidental.

RelatedPosts

Updated Timeline: Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions

Updated Timeline: Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions

March 19, 2025
2.6k
US Charges Yakuza Leader Over Conspiring to Sell Nuclear Material from Myanmar

US Charges Yakuza Leader Over Conspiring to Sell Nuclear Material from Myanmar

February 22, 2024
2.4k
Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambition Timeline

Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambition Timeline

October 6, 2022
5.2k

According to the Signature and Ratification terms of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, members need to follow a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities such as undertakings not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. The treaty also prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons on national territory and the provision of assistance to any state in the conduct of prohibited activities.

Myanmar became a non-nuclear weapon state party to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1992, and signed the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty in 1995, committing not to develop nuclear weapons. The country also signed the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement and a Small Quantities Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1995.

However, Myanmar attracted global concern in the 2000s when the country’s then military rulers maintained close relations with North Korea on arms sales, nuclear missiles development and nuclear warhead technology. The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative said Myanmar had developed relations with North Korea in the hope of receiving missile and nuclear weapon technologies.

In November 2008, the then chief of staff of the Myanmar Army, Navy and Air Force, and the coordinator of Special Operations, Shwe Mann, who now heads the Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission formed by the National League for Democracy-led government in 2016, led a 17-member, high-level delegation on a seven-day visit to Pyongyang. Among the sites they visited were secret tunnel complexes built into the sides of mountains to store and shield jet aircraft, missiles, tanks and, possibly, nuclear and chemical weapons.

The visit prompted then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express concern, saying that Myanmar’s ties with North Korea would destabilize the region and posed a direct threat to its neighbors.

“We know that there are also growing concerns about military cooperation between North Korea and Burma, which we take very seriously,” she said in Bangkok in 2009.

But Myanmar explicitly denied any cooperation with North Korea during Clinton’s first visit to the country in 2011.

After U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit in November 2012, Myanmar announced that it would sign the Additional Protocol. In 2013, Myanmar signed the agreement, but it has yet to ratify the instrument. Myanmar also signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2016, but has not yet ratified it.

However, according to the Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, Myanmar expressed an interest in nuclear energy for peaceful uses as early as 1955. NTI said Myanmar has consistently looked to Russia to obtain assistance on nuclear technology. In 2001, Russia and Myanmar signed a contract to design radioisotope production.

Although a few hundred Myanmar specialists have trained in nuclear research in Russia, NTI could not confirm whether the government is continuing to send scientists abroad after its decision to sign the Additional Protocol — an agreement created in the 1990s to strengthen existing rules — in 2012 and increase its transparency regarding its nuclear program.

In March 2015, Rosatom, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Commission, announced that Myanmar and Russia had agreed to cooperate further on nuclear energy development, according to NTI.

Myanmar was pushed to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by ASEAN in 2014 when the previous U Thein Sein government held the ASEAN chair. But the country failed to do so, missing a chance to gain political capital among ASEAN countries, experts said.

On Thursday, U Kyaw Tin told the Union Parliament: “The treaty aims to abolish nuclear weapons from the world. That suits our ambitions. We have already received decisions from related ministries.”

A total of 60 countries have signed the treaty and 14 have agreed to sign, including ASEAN members Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Union Parliament Speaker U T Khun Myat said a final decision would be made on Sept. 14. He said if lawmakers want to discuss the issue in Parliament, they have until Monday evening to propose their names.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: nonproliferationNuclear weapons
Nan Lwin

Nan Lwin

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

Updated Timeline: Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions
Burma

Updated Timeline: Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambitions

by Maung Kavi
March 19, 2025
2.6k

Myanmar’s plans to build a nuclear power plant were given a fresh fillip by junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s recent...

Read moreDetails
US Charges Yakuza Leader Over Conspiring to Sell Nuclear Material from Myanmar
World

US Charges Yakuza Leader Over Conspiring to Sell Nuclear Material from Myanmar

by AFP
February 22, 2024
2.4k

Takeshi Ebisawa planned to use the proceeds to fund weapons purchases for an ethnic armed organization, US authorities said.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambition Timeline
Burma

Myanmar Junta’s Nuclear Ambition Timeline

by The Irrawaddy
October 6, 2022
5.2k

Regime insists nuclear energy would be used for peaceful purposes but concern rises over possible military use.

Read moreDetails
Military personnel salute on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang, where statues of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il stand, on Aug. 15, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. / Kyodo
Asia

North Korea’s Ruling Party to Hold Key Meeting Ahead of US Election

by Kyodo News
August 18, 2020
6.7k

The Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling party will meet Wednesday; experts say the focus will be planning nuclear policy...

Read moreDetails
Kazuo Ishiguro (right), a Nobel Prize-winning British novelist who spent his childhood in Nagasaki, Japan, poses alongside his wife Lorna in London on July 3, 2018, after receiving an honorary citizen award from Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura. / Kyodo
World

Nobel Literature Laureate Ishiguro Stresses ‘Supreme Value of Life’ in Nagasaki A-bomb Message

by Kyodo News
August 10, 2020
4.2k

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro offered both a warning and message of hope in a speech marking the 75th anniversary of...

Read moreDetails
US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un arrive to sign documents that acknowledge the progress of the talks and pledge to keep momentum going, after their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. / Reuters
News

N. Korea’s Kim Says Must Deliver ‘Blow’ to Those Imposing Sanctions – KCNA

by Reuters
April 11, 2019
7.9k

Kim Jong Un said his country needs to deliver a “telling blow” to sanction-imposing countries by upping its efforts to...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Leaders of the Mon National Party and All Mon Region Democracy Party pose for a photo in Moulmein Township, Mon State, on June 24, 2018. / MNP / Facebook

Combining Mon Parties Select Name for New Political Party

The Sam Ratulangi container ship. / Yangon Police

Request for Legal Proceedings in ‘Ghost’ Container Ship Case

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

‘Reforms Are Not Optional’: Prominent Activist Urges NUG to Act Before It’s Too Late

3 days ago
1.1k
Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

3 days ago
1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Chief Thanks Trump for Shutting Down VOA and RFA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • KIA Denies Rumor Chief Under House Arrest in China

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Anti-Coup Icon Explains Urgent Call for NUG Reform

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.