Nuclear Nonproliferation Meeting Kicks Off at U.N.

New York, April 27 (Jiji Press)--A review conference for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty kicked off at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, with difficult negotiations expected amid slowing momentum for nuclear disarmament.

In his opening speech, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that "the drivers of proliferation are accelerating," saying that "commitments remain unfulfilled and trust and credibility are wearing thin."

Noting that Japanese hibakusha atomic bomb survivor group Nihon Hidankyo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024, Guterres said that the group's message to the world could not be more urgent, calling disarmament a foundation of peace.

In a general debate speech session, Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ayano Kunimitsu, who spent her youth in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both atomic-bombed in the closing days of World War II in 1945, read a statement from Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. In it, Takaichi said that the world faces "an urgent imperative to maintain and strengthen the NPT" to "ensure that it is passed on to future generations in an even more robust form."

"Japan is, and will continue to be, a guardian of the NPT," Kunimitsu said later in the session.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]