The world should accelerate nuclear disarmament momentum
(From The Japan Times August 6 issue)

核軍縮への機運を高めよ

This year Hiroshima and Nagasaki hold their peace memorial services to mark the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of the cities as the world feels the "global momentum toward a nuclear weapons-free world," as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon observes. It is important that every nation and citizens the world over do their best to accelerate this momentum so that people can live free from the fear of nuclear weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama's April 2009 speech in Prague, in which he made clear the U.S. commitment "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," has clearly contributed to building this momentum. In his speech, he also said that "as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act" toward building a world without nuclear weapons.

In September 2009, the United Nations Security Council, attended by the five permanent member states, which are nuclear-weapons states — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China — and the non-permanent member states, including Japan, adopted a resolution to "seek a safer world for all and create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons."

In April this year, the United States and Russia, which together hold nearly 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which caps the two countries' deployed warheads at 1,550 — 30 percent below the levels agreed in the 2002 Moscow Treaty, although it does not require actual destruction of the shelved warheads.

Later the same month, the United States announced its Nuclear Posture Review, which said that nuclear weapons should play a diminished role in U.S. military strategy and that the United States "will not develop new nuclear weapons." The United States refrained from adopting a "no first use" policy but pledged not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states that are signatories to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and are in compliance with all obligations under the treaty.

April also saw 47 countries adopt, at a nuclear security summit, a 12-point communique to strengthen nuclear security, reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism and secure all vulnerable nuclear material within four years. The next month, 189 countries at the U.N.'s NPT Review Conference reconfirmed their commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and agreed to hold a regional conference in 2012 that would eliminate weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

The peace memorial service in Hiroshima carries the imprint of the momentum created by those events. Mr. Ban is the first U.N. secretary general to attend it and to meet hibakusha, or A-bomb survivors. All countries, especially those possessing nuclear weapons, should heed his call that they "act within a time frame so that at least some hibakusha will live to see the end of all nuclear weapons."

Despite the momentum for a nuclear weapons-free world, the situation concerning nuclear non-proliferation in East Asia is difficult. North Korea has not shown any sign of returning to the six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. Japan, the United States and South Korea should persevere in working to get the North to return to the talks and to change the attitude of China, which chairs the talks and maintains close ties with Pyongyang. In the long run, countries around the North should endeavor to create an environment in which it does not feel threatened and does not see the need to possess nuclear weapons.

Japan should also be careful about its talks with India over a pact to allow it to import civilian nuclear technology and equipment from Japan. Japan should have the courage to end the talks if India fails to commit itself to non-proliferation efforts such as ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty and stopping production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Japan also should try to get India and Pakistan, both of which possess nuclear arms, to join the NPT.

Although Japan advocates a nuclear weapons-free world, its continued reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella could impede its efforts to help create such a world. At the very least, it should uphold steadfastly its three-point non-nuclear principle of not "producing" and not "possessing" nuclear weapons, and not allowing them to be "brought in." This pronounced non-nuclear principle is the strongest lever in trying to get the nuclear-weapons states to reduce their arsenals.

潘基文国連事務総長が言及した「核なき世界への機運の高まり」のなかで、原爆投下65周年の平和記念式典開催。核の恐怖からの解放を目指し、各国、各市民がこの機運を高めるべきだ。

昨年4月プラハでオバマ大統領は、核兵器のない世界を求めることを誓い、核軍縮への動きを加速させた。9月には国連安保理で、核兵器のない世界を目指した条件づくりに取り組むと記した決議が採択された。今年4月、米露は新戦略兵器削減条約に署名、米国は核戦略見直しを発表し、米軍戦略における核兵器の役割縮小を明記、新たな核兵器開発は行なわないとしている。また核保安サミットは、4年以内に核物質管理体制を確立することを誓った。翌5月、国連の核不拡散条約再検討会議では中東に核と大量破壊兵器のない地域を作るための会議を2012年に開催する合意がなされた。

潘氏は被爆者に会い、平和記念式典に参列した初の国連事務総長だ。被爆者存命中に核兵器廃絶を、という氏の呼びかけに、すべての国、特に核保有国は耳を傾けるべきだ。しかし東アジアでは核非拡散の取り組みが難航、北朝鮮が6ヵ国協議に参加する気配はない。日米韓は協議再開に向け、議長国で北朝鮮とつながりが深い中国に働きかかける必要がある。インドとの民生用原子力協力については、包括的核実験禁止条約への加盟や核分裂性物質生産停止を求めていくべきだ。インドやパキスタンに核不拡散条約加盟を促すことも必要だ。

日本が米国の核の傘に頼っていることが、核なき世界の実現の妨げになる可能性もある。核兵器保有国に核兵器削減を強く求めるための強力な手段として、非核三原則の厳守を今後も続けていくべきだ。