Shii again calls on NPT conference leader to strive for negotiation to ban nuclear weapons

Japan Press Weekly

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Shii again calls on NPT conference leader to strive for negotiation to ban nuclear weapons

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo announced at the Japan National Press Club on May 16 that he sent a letter to NPT Review Conference President Libran N. Cabactulan, again calling for the president’s effort to start international negotiations for a ban on nuclear weapons. His letter is as follows:

May 16, 2010

H.E. Mr. Libran N. Cabactulan
President of the 2010 NPT Review Conference

Excellency,

It was a great honor for us to meet with you in New York on May 2 and convey to you our request to the 8th NPT Review Conference, and to hold a productive exchange of views. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity you gave us despite your extremely tight schedule.

I was also deeply impressed to read the Draft Report of the Review Conference’s Main Committee (I) which was issued on May 14, just after we came back home. The Draft reaffirms the ‘‘unequivocal undertaking’’ by the nuclear weapon States made in the 2000 Review Conference. It also states: ‘‘all States, and in particular all States possessing nuclear weapons, need to make special efforts to establish the legal framework required to achieve the final phase of nuclear disarmament and maintain a world without nuclear weapons.’’ As concrete steps to achieve this, it further proposes the following Actions:

--Action 6: The nuclear-weapon States shall convene consultations not later than 2011 to accelerate concrete progress on nuclear disarmament;
--Action7: to convene an international conference in 2014 to consider ways and means to agree on a roadmap for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons within a specified timeframe.

The proposal to convene an international conference to consider a roadmap for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons is epoch-making as it has never been made in previous review conferences. This corresponds to our request conveyed to you, i.e. ‘‘to commence international negotiations with the elimination of nuclear weapons as the goal and to agree on the process needed to achieve this goal,’’ and is exactly what the anti-nuclear peace movement in Japan, the A-bombed country, is calling for. Heartily welcoming this proposal, I am convinced that remarkable progress toward a ‘‘world without nuclear weapons’’ will be achieved if this is implemented.

In addition, Japanese people visiting New York were greatly encouraged and impressed by the fact that on May 2 you received 6,900,000 signatures from Japan in front of the United Nations Headquarters, and that on the following day you started your opening speech to the Review Conference with a reference to the signatures you had received from civil society and the need to respond to their enthusiasm.

I admire your enormous efforts in preparation for this Draft Report and earnestly request you to make continuous efforts to overcome various obstacles during coming deliberations to ensure that the proposals stated in the Draft Report will be materialized.

The Japanese Communist Party, together with the anti-nuclear peace movement in Japan, is determined to make all possible efforts, by urging the Japanese government and other governments around the world to help realize the proposals.

I would like to send my best wishes for your good health and successful work.

Sincerely yours,

SHII Kazuo
Executive Committee Chairperson
Japanese Communist Party
Member of the House of Representatives, National Diet