NPT Review Conference Begins

The 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) started at headquarters of the United Nations on April 27th. The conference is held in the time when international security faces a major uncertainty with military attacks on sovereign states by countries which have nuclear weapons. Japan is tested whether it can play a proper role as the only country in the world which had suffered from nuclear bombs. 

NPT Review Conference had been held in every five years until 2015 and 2020 conference was delayed to 2022 due to COVID-19. Article 6 of the treaty mandates the parties to pursue negotiations “in good faith on effective measures” relating to nuclear disarmament. Nevertheless, nuclear disarmament has not been accelerated and the review conference failed in having a common document as the outcome in latest two meetings.

 

In his opening remarks of the 11th review conference, U.N. Secretary General, António Guterres, argued that a state of collective amnesia is taken hold, remembering the first resolution of U.N. General Assembly on abolition of nuclear weapons in 1946. “For too long, the Treaty has been eroding. Commitments remain unfulfilled. Trust and credibility are wearing thin. The drivers of proliferation are accelerating. We need to breathe life into the Treaty once more,” said Guterres.

 

Against the secretary general’s hope, the conference started with antagonism between the Unite States and Iran. The U.S. opposed election of Iran as one of thirty-four vice-presidents of the conference. Arguing that Iran has been acting against non-proliferation, the U.S. denied approving Iran’s status of vice-presidency. Iran questioned qualification of the U.S., raising its unilateral walking out from nuclear agreement on Iran in 2018.

 

Japan has been finding great importance in the non-proliferation regime of the NPT. The government of Japan justifies itself as a major supporter of NPT, when it is criticized its attitude taking distance from the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Former prime minister Fumio Kishida, who was elected in an electoral district in Hiroshima,  participated in the last conference in 2022 and gave a speech.

 

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi defied the conference this year. She sent State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ayano Kinimitsu, on her behalf. Kunimitsu read out Takaichi’s message in the conference, which demanded maintenance and reinforcement of the NPT. Kunimitsu introduced an episode of large number of deaths by an atomic bomb in a high school in Hiroshima, of which she was a student after the war,

 

Civil groups of sufferers from atomic bombs are further earnest in taking actions against nuclear weapons than the government of Japan. They appeal abolishment of nuclear weapons in New York City during the NPT review conference are held. They insist that human being cannot coexist with nuclear weapons, because they are so inhumane as to kill a huge number of people in a moment.

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