Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 13 - 19 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

JCP Vice Chair Ogata meets with Cuban Ambassador Fernandez de Cossío

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo on May 14 met with Cuban Ambassador José Fernández de Cossío and Political Counsellor Andrés González Ballester at the JCP head office.

Ogata explained JCP Chair Shii Kazuo’s recent letter to U.S. President Barack Obama calling on him to start international negotiations aimed at abolishing nuclear weapons and asked the Cuban ambassador to convey the information about it to the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) as well as to the Cuban government.

Recalling that the Cuban Movement for Peace and Peoples’ Sovereignty has sent its delegates to the World Conference against A & H Bombs since the 1960s, contributing to the development of cooperation between peace movements of the two countries in the struggle to get nuclear weapons abolished, Ogata expressed hope for cooperation to be further increased between the JCP and the CPC.

Referring to the Cuban delegate’s statement on behalf of the non-aligned countries at the recent Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2010 NPT Review Conference in New York, Ambassador Fernández de Cossío commended on the JCP Chair Shii’s call regarding the abolition of nuclear weapons and emphasized the importance of eliminating nuclear weapons and the urgency of negotiations aimed at achieving the objective.

Pointing out that nuclear-weapons states have not fulfilled their obligations under the NPT, the ambassador pointed out the importance of having nuclear-weapons states to reaffirm their promise to eliminate their nuclear weapons and implement the commitment.