Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2022 August 24 - 30 TOP3 [PEACE]

Shii issues comment after close of NPT Review Conference

The 10th NPT Review Conference, without adopting a final document after four weeks of discussions, ended on August 26 at the UN Headquarters in NYC.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on August 27 issued a comment regarding this unsuccessful outcome (full text below). Shii in his comment criticized the five nuclear-weapon states, including Russia which was the only nation objecting to the final document, for clinging to the nuclear deterrence theory and working to block progress toward achieving a world without nuclear weapons.

Shii pointed out that a key to abolish nuclear weapons is to overcome the nuclear deterrence theory which nuclear-armed countries and their allies have been sticking to, and added that in order to have these states abandon their deterrence policy, joint efforts of civil society and governments of many countries to ban nuclear weapons in addition to a further development of international opinion are strongly demanded.

* * *

Following is the full text of Shii’s statement:

The direction laid out in the Japanese Communist Party's request to the Conference turns out to be shared among overwhelming majority of the world

Shii Kazuo
Japanese Communist Party Chair
August 27, 2022

The 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which opened on August 1 and closed on August 26, has failed to agree on and adopt a final document. The Japanese Communist Party strongly criticizes the five nuclear-weapon States for sticking to the nuclear deterrence myth and trying to impede a global move towards a world without nuclear weapons, not to mention Russia, the only state that opposed the adoption of a final document in the Conference.

Despite a shared concern that “the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War”(the draft final document), the nuclear-weapon States refuse to follow their obligations to eliminate their nuclear arsenals under Article VI of the NPT. Their defiance will inevitably meet severe criticism from international society.

In the latest Review Conference, energized by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, non-nuclear weapon States one after another brought forward convincing and aggressive arguments and nuclear-weapon States were on the defensive, making excuses such as, “It is necessary to create an environment for nuclear disarmament”.

Although the draft final document was not adopted, all States Parties except for Russia did not oppose the draft document noting the Conference’s “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons”, citing “the reaffirmation by the nuclear-weapon States of their unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals” under article VI of the Treaty, and stating that the Conference “acknowledges” that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force and held its first Meeting of States Parties.

This shows that the future direction on nuclear disarmament laid out in the JCP's request to the Conference is shared among the overwhelming majority of the world, which even most nuclear-weapons States cannot deny.

The total elimination of nuclear weapons is “the only absolute guarantee against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons” (the draft final document) and the key to achieve this goal is to overcome the nuclear deterrence myth to which Nuclear Weapon States and their allies stick. To this end, the acute need is a further development of international public opinion and cooperation between state governments and civil society calling for a ban on nuclear weapons.

During the Conference, State Parties and signatories to the TPNW issued a joint statement severely criticizing the nuclear deterrence myth by pointing out that “nuclear weapons are used as “instruments of policy, linked to coercion, intimidation and heightening of tensions”. It also stresses the need to reaffirm “the complementarity of the TPNW with the NPT”.

It is now urgently necessary to recognize the treaties as the two most important and interconnected vehicles to establish a world without nuclear weapons. The JCP emphasizes that the driving force in achieving this goal comes from greater cooperation between civil society and many state governments throughout the world.

Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, who attended the Conference as the first ever prime minister of the world’s only A-bombed country to do so, in his speech did not mention a word about neither Article VI of the Treaty, which was a focus of discussion, nor the TPNW, going counter to the world’s trend. His stance is shameful.

As a political party in the world’s only country that experienced nuclear attacks, the JCP renews its determination to keep working hard to push the Japanese government to sign and ratify the TPNW as early as possible.