Japan Statement to the CD 19 August

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Statement by Ambassador MINE, Japan
(19 August)

Mr. President,

At the outset, I would like to congratulate you on the assumption of the presidency and express my sincere appreciation, on your efforts to move the Conference forward at this very critical juncture. I would like to assure you the full support and cooperation of my delegation in our common efforts to bring this stalemate to an end.

I support the President’s initiative on informal plenary meetings to provide impetus to substantive work at the CD. The informal meetings have proved useful. We have had indepth discussion at the informal plenary meetings under previous presidencies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the excellent work of Ambassador Macedo, Ambassador Bekhbat and Ambassador Hilale.

I also would like to stress the importance of the function of formal plenary meetings. Informal meetings have their own virtue, allowing us to express our view more frankly and interact with each other more easily. Whereas formal plenaries have their own benefits, pinning down our work in a formal manner, thus enabling us to solidify our developments. We should extract elements from the informal meetings that are worth registering formally.

Having said this, I would like to briefly speak about the 16th UN Conference on Disarmament Issues recently held in Sapporo, Japan, from 26 to 29 July. Japan has sponsored a UN Conference on Disarmament Issues in a different local city each year since 1989. The theme of this year’s Conference, the second to be held in Sapporo, was “Mounting Challenges to Peace and Security and Disarmament Today."

The Conference was organized by the U.N. Department for Disarmament Affairs and the U.N. Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific in close cooperation with the Government of Japan, Sapporo City and Hokkaido Prefecture.

More than 80 participants attended, including governments, academic institutes, non-governmental organizations and the press. On our side, Mr. Kazunori Tanaka gave a welcome address in his capacity as Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. From Geneva, Ambassador of Malaysia, Ms. Rajmah Hussain, participated in the Conference, which she mentioned the other day.

The Conference provided an invaluable opportunity for interaction between experts and deepening understanding on disarmament and non-proliferation issues, such as nuclear black market, strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), challenges and prospects of the 2005 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference, strengthening multilateralism, regional security in North-East Asia and the role of civil society.

Also, the Conference was a contribution to disarmament and non-proliferation education, on which Japan places great importance. The Conference was open to the Japanese public, and it offered an excellent opportunity for the citizens of Sapporo to deepen their understanding on disarmament and non-proliferation.

A Citizen’s Forum on disarmament and non-proliferation education was also held during the Conference, based on the 2002 UN study on disarmament and non-proliferation education adopted at UN General Assembly in 2002.

Japan would like to continue its efforts to enhancing disarmament and non-proliferation education.

Thank you, Mr. President.