INDONESIA’S top diplomat warned today of the threat posed by nuclear weapons, saying that south-east Asia is “one miscalculation away from apocalypse” and pressed for world powers to sign a treaty to keep the region free from such arms.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi raised the alarm ahead of a two-day summit of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean), which began today in Jakarta. 

The agenda will spotlight Myanmar’s deadly civil strife, continuing tensions in the South China Sea and efforts to fortify regional economies amid the global headwinds set off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Later in the week, the 10-nation bloc will meet Asian and Western counterparts, including United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese foreign policy chief Wang Yi.

The US-China rivalry is not formally on Asean’s agenda but looms large over the meetings of the bloc with some members split over allegiances either to Washington or Beijing.

Ms Marsudi told fellow Asean ministers: “We cannot be truly safe with nuclear weapons in our region.”

She said: “With nuclear weapons, we are only one miscalculation away from apocalypse and global catastrophe.”

In 1995, Asean states signed a treaty that declared south-east Asia’s commitment to be a nuclear weapon-free zone, one of five in the world. 

But powers have signed on to the pact and called for renewed efforts to convince those states to sign up.

“The threat is imminent, so we can no longer play a waiting game,” she said.

A draft communique, expected tomorrow, mentions the possibility of a first nuclear weapons state finally signing the treaty but says that there would have to be written assurances that the treaty was being ratified “without reservations.”

The draft communique did not identify the prospective state. But, two south-east Asian diplomats attending the Jakarta meetings told reporters off the record that it was China. 

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s generals have again been banned from attending the Asean summit for refusing to ease a deadly civil strife sparked by the military’s seizure of power more than two years ago.

The army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and plunged the country into deadly chaos.

More than 3,750 civilians have been killed by security forces and nearly 24,000 arrested since the military takeover, according to rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.