United States, Japan Cooperating on Global Nuclear Disarmament
Washington â€" The United States and Japan are committed to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and have pledged to cooperate on interim steps that will build international consensus around strengthened nuclear nonproliferation efforts and nuclear security.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington — The United States and Japan are committed to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons and have pledged to cooperate on interim steps that will build international consensus around strengthened nuclear nonproliferation efforts and nuclear security.
President Obama said he and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama share a “commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately seeking a world without them.” Speaking in Tokyo November 13, Obama said both leaders recognize that “this is a distant goal” that may not be reached within their lifetimes, but the two countries will take “specific steps in the interim.” ( See “Remarks by President Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama.” )
The United States will retain a nuclear weapons deterrent for itself and its allies for as long as nuclear weapons exist, but “we are already taking steps to bring down our nuclear stockpiles,” including ongoing cooperation with Russia on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( START ), Obama said.
As president, Obama first called for the elimination of nuclear weapons during a speech in Prague, where he described their existence as “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War.” He also noted that the United States had used two nuclear weapons against Japan in its 1945 effort to bring World War II to an end.
“As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act,” he said. “We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.” ( See “President Obama Remarks in Prague, Czech Republic.” )
In his remarks with Prime Minister Hatoyama, Obama said Japan “has a unique perspective” on nuclear weapons as the only country to have suffered a nuclear attack. “That I’m sure helps to motivate the prime minister’s deep interest in this issue.”
The president said he may someday visit the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were destroyed by atomic weapons in 1945. “I don’t have immediate travel plans, but it’s something that would be meaningful to me,” he said.
In a November 13 joint statement confirming their commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons, the two governments outlined steps they would take to encourage disarmament, nonproliferation and nuclear security.
Both countries called upon states with nuclear arsenals “to respect the principles of transparency, verifiability and irreversibility in the process of nuclear disarmament.” The statement said that, through measures such as the START follow-on treaty with Russia, the United States is “committed to reducing the role of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy,” and urges other nuclear weapons states to do the same.
NORTH KOREA AND IRAN MUST UPHOLD OBLIGATIONS
The statement said that, in line with combating the threat of nuclear proliferation, “it remains vital for North Korea and Iran to uphold and adhere to their respective international obligations.”
North Korea’s continuing pursuit of nuclear weapons constitutes “a major threat to peace and stability” in Northeast Asia and beyond, and the United States and Japan stressed that the Six-Party Talks, which include the three countries plus China, South Korea and Russia, “remain the most effective framework” to achieve the “irreversible and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” The statement urged North Korea to return to the talks “without precondition.”
Iran must restore international confidence that its nuclear activities will not allow the country to produce nuclear weapons, and the joint statement said the recent disclosure of Iran’s new facility near the city of Qom has “reinforced the international community’s concern regarding the nature of its nuclear program.” Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to seek a “comprehensive, long-term solution through dialogue and negotiation” with Tehran.
To allow countries to access peaceful nuclear power without increasing the risks of weapons proliferation, the United States, Japan and others are exploring how to “enhance a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including assurances of fuel supply,” and view “cradle-to-grave nuclear fuel management” as an important element of that framework.
The statement said Japan will host a nuclear security conference for Asian countries in January 2010, as well as a December 2009 preparatory meeting for the Nuclear Security Summit that the United States is hosting in April 2010. Both countries “reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that civil nuclear materials and facilities receive the highest levels of physical protection,” and “pledge their support for efforts to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years,” to help reduce the threat from nuclear terrorism.
The United States will also host the upcoming review conference designed to strengthen the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons ( NPT ) and its central role in preventing nonproliferation and promoting disarmament while allowing peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Japan and the United States will cooperate to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) and its safeguards, to “prevent abuse of the NPT’s withdrawal provision, and to establish multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle that can be widely accepted.”
The United States also intends to pursue ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ( CTBT ), and both countries expressed confidence that their security alliance “will be enhanced by the entry into force of the CTBT and the reinvigoration of the international nonproliferation regime.”
The State Department’s Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, acknowledged that ratification of the CTBT, which must be done by the U.S. Senate, “will be difficult.”
Speaking to an audience in Washington November 10, Tauscher recalled the unsuccessful effort to ratify the treaty in 1999, and said some of its opponents are still in the Senate. At the same time, “we still have a lot of people that don’t know why they would be for it because there are 40 senators that have never voted on a treaty.”
The under secretary said ratification supporters will need to reassure CTBT opponents that the U.S. nuclear arsenal is safe and secure without nuclear testing. Although not a signatory to the treaty, the United States has observed a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing since 1992.
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