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2016 August 31 - September 6 [JCP]

JCP voices reservations about ICAPP declaration over nuclear weapons issue

The International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) held in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur ended on September 3 after adopting the Kuala Lumpur Declaration. In the final vote, the delegation of the Japanese Communist Party expressed reservations concerning a part of the declaration dealing with the issue of nuclear weapons.

The adopted declaration contains the following six key points: prevention of terrorist activities; resolution of regional conflicts in a peaceful and harmonious manner; comprehensive prohibition and thorough elimination of weapons of mass destruction; the ICAPP’s role in making Asia a better and safer place; the ICAPP’s commitment to build an “Asian community” or “One Asia” as its ultimate goal; and international efforts to solve the challenges of poverty and environmental degradation.

The reason for the JCP’s reservations is that a sentence calling for a commencement of international negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention was deleted from the draft resolution.

The ICAPP’s two preceding declarations, adopted in 2010 and 2014, included wording similar to the deleted sentence. The deletion of this important call, which has been sought by civil societies and most UN member states, is a major setback in the ICAPP declaration.

The final draft which was agreed on in the drafting committee held on the evening of September 2 and was distributed to all participants the following day stated that the ICAPP “called for a prompt start of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention”. Just before it was put to a vote, however, the delegation of the Communist Party of China strongly demanded the deletion of this sentence. Following that, a “revised version” of the draft was suddenly given out and adopted.

In the vote, the JCP delegation submitted to the group of chairpersons a document which condemns the CPC delegation for forcing a change in the draft declaration at the last moment and expresses reservations regarding the paragraph referring to the issue of nuclear weapons.

Past related article:
> ICAPP calls for prompt start of negotiations on nuclear weapons convention [ September 21 & 22, 2014]