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Indonesia calls on Israel to join NPT

Indonesia has urged Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) voicing grave concerns on the threat of nuclear proliferation across the globe.

“We must prevail on Israel to come into the NPT fold,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Raden Mohammad Marty Muliana Natalegawa said Monday in New York at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal of at least 250 warheads and has never allowed IAEA inspections of all its nuclear facilities.

The Indonesian foreign minister also demanded the establishment of new nuclear weapon-free zones, particularly in the Middle East.

“Nuclear proliferation threats, wherever their source, must be effectively addressed without discrimination and double standard on the basis of multilateralism and international law.

“We certainly find it difficult to rationalize nuclear energy cooperation involving those who have openly chosen to add to the proliferation momentum,” Natalegawa noted.

187 member countries of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) have gathered in New York for the 8th NPT Review Conference which runs between May 3 and 28.

The Review Conference is held every five years to evaluate and ensure that NPT provisions are being realized. The 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held from May 2 to May 27 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The conference proved a failure since it could not adopt a final document.

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