U.S. and Russia should assume leadership role in eliminating nuclear weapons: Gensuikyo Secretary General Taka

Japan Press Weekly

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U.S. and Russia should assume leadership role in eliminating nuclear weapons: Gensuikyo Secretary General Taka

Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) Secretary General Taka Hiroshi on April 8 issued a statement on the new U.S.-Russia treaty to reduce strategic arms which U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed. Taka’s statement follows:

The United States and Russia on April 8 signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to limit their strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 each and limit launch vehicles to 800 each.

When they started the negotiations, both heads said that the new treaty would lead to a “world without nuclear weapons.” In view of that goal, the scale of reduction is small, and even if the treaty is fully implemented, the two countries will still maintain 3,100 nuclear warheads in 2020, which are more than enough to annihilate humankind.

The two countries are being requested to display leadership in showing a definite way toward eliminating nuclear weapons to fulfill their “commitment to seeking a world without nuclear weapons.”

President Obama says that the United States will maintain a strong and effective nuclear deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist. But if nuclear powers, especially the U.S. and Russia which together possess 95% of all nuclear weapons in the world, do not pave boldly the way to a total ban on these weapons, the danger of nuclear proliferation cannot be overcome.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will begin on May 3. The sincerity and trustworthiness of the five nuclear weapons states that promised “the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals” at the 2000 NPT Review Conference shall be tested. Peoples throughout the world along with the majority of governments hope that negotiations for a binding treaty to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons will be undertaken. We urge that the U.S. and Russia take specific initiatives.

We will submit to the NPT Review Conference signatures of the Japanese people calling for a total ban and elimination of all nuclear weapons. We urge the Japanese government, as the government of the only atomic-bombed country, to also propose to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons.

- Akahata, April 9, 2010