2009 July 8 - 14 [
ANTI-N-ARMS]
Gensuikyo calls on U.S. and Russia toward a zero-nuclear arms
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July 8, 2009
The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) welcomed the U.S.-Russia agreement to cap the number of their strategic nuclear weapons at 1500-1675 by concluding a new treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) but pointed out that the agreement is still far from what could be called radical cuts in their nuclear arsenals.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on July 6 agreed to limit strategic delivery systems to within 500-1,100 units and warheads to 1,500-1,675 within seven years.
In a published comment on July 7, Taka Hiroshi, Japan Gensuikyo secretary general, urged the two nuclear powers to take the initiative to completely eliminate nuclear weapons from the world.
Taka said:
“The United States and Russia are still negotiating the deal. There are many things that we will have to wait and see regarding how deep they are going to cut arsenals, what measures they will put forward to dispose of nuclear weapons that are to be dismantled and how this will be verified, and how these measures will be linked to the process conducive to the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
As U.S. President Obama emphasized in his Prague speech in April, if one nuclear weapon exploded in one city, there is no end to what the consequences might be. We earnestly hope that the United States and Russia continue to discuss a world without nuclear weapons with a view to reaching agreements to radically cut their arsenals and take the initiative for achieving zero-nuclear weapons.”
- Akahata, July 8, 2009
