Political Series

Kishida urges NPDI to seek results at NPT review conference

Pool photo / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, meets with Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi and Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki at an exhibition on the abolition of nuclear weapons in New York on Monday.

17:02 JST, August 2, 2022

NEW YORK (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday urged all members of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Initiative to unite for a meaningful outcome in the ongoing Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference.

At a high-level NPDI meeting in New York, Kishida also said that the role of the NPDI members, which are 12 nonnuclear states including Japan, is crucial to achieving such results.

Kishida became the first Japanese prime minister to attend an NPDI meeting.

Despite the tough road ahead to achieve a world without nuclear weapons, the world must make realistic efforts one step at a time toward the goal, Kishida stressed.

He voiced his determination to work together with other NPDI members to realize the goal no matter how arduous the journey may be.

Spearheaded by Japan and Australia, the NPDI framework was launched in 2010.

In the previous NPT review conference in 2015, which ended without adopting an agreement, the NPDI members had proposed a rough draft for the agreement.