(990812)CD林大使(東京ﾌｫｰﾗﾑ)

　　Since this is the first time for me taking the floor under your presidency, please allow me to express my warmest congratulations on your assumption of the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament. I pledge the fullest cooperation and support of my delegation at the discharge of your important task. I also wish to express my sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Ambassador Dembri of Algeria, for his earnest and tireless efforts in achieving an agreement on the programme of work for this year.

　　I have asked for the floor today in order to inform the CD members of the Report of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, which was issued on 27 July.

　　The Tokyo Forum was originally proposed by the then Prime Minister, Mr. Ryutaro HASHIMOTO, and the then Foreign Minister and current Prime Minister, Mr. Keizo OBUCHI, in August 1998, bearing in mind various challenges, both regional and global, which we face today in the promotion of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, especially the nuclear testing in South Asia.

　　The idea was to form a group in which eminent experts study ways and means of countering the negative trends in nuclear non-proliferation and of accelerating the nuclear disarmament process, and, based on that study, make concrete recommendations.

　　This undertaking was entrusted to two Japanese independent institutes, which have expertise to conduct studies on disarmament, namely the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Hiroshima Peace Institute, to set up a body for that purpose. Their role and work as secretariat was supported by the Government of Japan.

　　More than twenty prominent experts from around the world participated in this exercise in their own personal capacities. Thus, the views expressed by the members do not necessarily reflect their governments' or organizations' positions to which they belong.

　　They met four times and as a result produced this report at the last meeting which was held in Tokyo last month.

　　It should be noted that the members agreed to the main thrust of the report, but did not subscribe to every point in the report.

　　The report and recommendations are based on members' analysis of the recent developments and their shared concern over the urgent need for concrete steps to be taken in order to stop the worrisome trends in regional and global security.

　　The report was submitted to Prime Minister, Mr. OBUCHI, by the co-chairmen of the Forum, namely the Vice Chairman of the Japan Institute for International Affairs, Mr. Nobuo MATSUNAGA, and former UN Undersecretary General and former President of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, Mr. Yasushi AKASHI.

　　Even though the Government of Japan played only a limited role in supporting the organization of the meetings and the views expressed in the report do not necessarily reflect its position, our government regards the report and the recommendations contained therein as significant contributions to the discussions on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation by the international community.

　　 The Japanese Government, taking this report into consideration, intends to continue playing a key role in nuclear disarmament with a view to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.　　　　　

　　I would like to inform the CD members that the report was also submitted by the co-chairmen to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, on 4 August in New York. Accordingly, his spokesman issued a statement which expresses the appreciation of the recommendations and the hope that the international community will study them with a view to reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons in the world.　

　　The work of the Tokyo Forum has been concluded.　The Japanese Government sincerely hopes that the Tokyo Forum Report be further considered and studied at various levels in the international community, as a road map of how disarmament and non-proliferation issues can be pursued.

　　I asked the Secretary-General of the CD, Mr. Petrovsky, to issue the text of the Tokyo Forum Report as an official document of the CD.　The full text of the report is also available in the home page of our mission