Conference on nuke disarmament in Hiroshima

November 27, 2017

Hiroshima hosts meeting on nuclear disarmament

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20171127_13/

An international conference on nuclear disarmament has begun in Hiroshima city, which was destroyed by an atom bomb at the end of the World War Two.

Delegates at the 2-day meeting will discuss disarmament and how to bridge the widening gap between nuclear and non-nuclear states.

Japan's Foreign Ministry is hosting the event. The delegates were welcomed by Fumio Kishida, an ex-foreign minister and chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy research council.

Kishida, who greenlighted the Hiroshima event, said disarmament will not progress without the involvement of nuclear-armed nations.

He said he hoped the meeting will be a stepping stone for countries to work together toward a world without nuclear weapons.

Global experts and intellectuals from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are taking part. Before the meeting, delegates visited the Peace Memorial Park and met survivors of the 1945 bombing.

The chasm between nuclear- and non-nuclear-armed nations has deepened since July when the UN General Assembly adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Japan has come under fire for not joining the treaty. The Japanese government is hoping to compile proposals for a preparatory session of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in April next year.

Japan is the only country to have been A-bombed. With that in mind, the government says it wants to serve as a bridge between the two nuclear camps.