Delegation
of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament
3, chemin des Fins – P.O. Box 133 – 1211 GENEVA 19 – Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0) 22 717 34 44 – Fax +41 (0) 22 788 38 18
Website : www.disarm.emb-japan.go.jp
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Statement by H.E. Mr. Akio SUDA
Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Japan
to the Conference on Disarmament
Geneva, 11 August 2011
Mr. President,
This month marks the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Japan, August 6 for Hiroshima and August 9 for Nagasaki are days for remembering the tragedies that befell these two cities and for renewing our determination to build a world free of nuclear weapons.
66 years is a long time. Over the years, the Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) and their friends and supporters have been doing everything possible to communicate to the world the devastating effects of the atomic bombings. However, they have been aging and an increasing number of them are passing away.
In an attempt to preserve and share the stories of the survivors, the Government asked the Hibakusha in September last year to talk to people around the world as “Special Communicators for a World without Nuclear Weapons” in order to pass on their experiences, particularly to the younger generations. Since then the Special Communicators have participated in 15 events around the world, including here in Geneva this spring.
The 6th and 9th of August should not, however, be only for remembrance, but also for taking stock; what progress has been made in our endeavors to come close to the goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons.
We can list several important and positive developments since the Prague speech in April 2009, including the productive achievements of the 2010 NPT Review Conference. However, asides from the US-Russia New START Treaty and some unilateral moves, we have seen very little concrete progress in nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in the past two years.
Who is responsible for such inactivity of many years, particularly for the past two years, which have betrayed the high expectations of the international community, including those gathered at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations? I must say that we, all the members of the Conference on Disarmament, have to share a significant part of that responsibility.
We, the CD members, all knew what we should do in order to assume our responsibility to multilateral disarmament when we adopted by consensus CD/1864 in May 2009. But immediately after we became lost in a forest of mischievous arguments over the strict consensus rule, the overriding interests of an individual state, the lack of political will, etc.
This august chamber is not a money-consuming discussion forum but the supposed-to-be single multilateral negotiating body for disarmament treaties. The dysfunction of this body is now seriously affecting not just the CD’s credibility but further the entire process of multilateral nuclear disarmament, which many of us cannot stand anymore.
My brain is built simple so that the questions before us look very simple to me.
(1) Whether we are willing to work together to make progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons? Yes, then
(2) Whether we can achieve our goal in a short time and by an almighty treaty? No,
(3) Whether we should immediately start negotiations on a possible concrete step forward and at the same time conduct substantive discussions on other important but more difficult issues, without excluding future negotiations? Yes.
Then why we cannot agree immediately to start substantive work on the basis of CD/1864?
If the CD cannot give a simple answer to these simple questions before the end of this session, Japan believes, as many others do, that we should seek other way to start substantive work on nuclear disarmament, including the negotiation of an FMCT.
I thank you.