Japan Press Weekly

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2011 August 3 - 16 [JCP]

Shii talks with Duarte about convention banning nuclear weapons

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo met with Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, to exchange views regarding efforts to achieve a world without nuclear weapons on the occasion of the 2011 World Conference against A & H Bombs on August 7 in Nagasaki City.

Expressing his appreciation to Duarte for attending the Conference, Shii said that since the 2010 NPT Review Conference, the task of starting negotiations for a convention banning nuclear weapons has become a pressing issue in the international arena.

Duarte stated that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon repeatedly emphasized the importance to the start of negotiations. He mentioned that civil society groups have also suggested ways to enrich the content of the convention and have the negotiations launched as soon as possible.

Handing out to Duarte the Phnom Penh Declaration adopted by the International Conference of Asian Political Parties in Cambodia in December 2010, Shii explained that in response to the JCP suggestion to do so, the declaration includes wording in support of U.N. Secretary General’s five-point proposal on nuclear disarmament which includes the start of negotiations.

Duarte said it is significant that U.N. member states and their civil society organizations are jointly working for the commencement of negotiations and that political parties in each nation are taking part in this effort.