China's nuclear arms buildup could pose a threat to world security. Working toward the realization of multinational negotiations on nuclear weapons reduction could serve as a check on China.
The Nonproliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) meeting was held recently in Hiroshima at the initiative of Japan — the world's only victim of atomic bombing — with foreign ministers from Germany, Australia and 10 other nonnuclear states in attendance. It is significant that the Hiroshima Declaration was adopted to call for promoting nuclear disarmament.
Prior to the meeting, the participating ministers heard testimony from atomic bomb survivors (hibakusha) and offered flowers at the memorial cenotaph for atomic bomb victims. The ministers probably recognized anew the importance for nuclear arms reduction after witnessing the effects of nuclear terror.
It is commendable that the declaration called on the world's political leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki "to also witness the catastrophic humanitarian consequences" of atomic bombings "with their own eyes."
The crucial point of the declaration is that it calls for the establishment of a framework for multinational talks to achieve nuclear abolition, urging all states not yet committed to global nuclear disarmament efforts to reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles. The declaration apparently made this statement with China in mind, although it avoided naming that country.
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China is reportedly the only country to have increased its nuclear arsenal among the five nations that are permitted to possess nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China. The NPDI members should join hands in working on the nuclear powers to realize nuclear arms reduction talks, and these talks should include China.
Needless to say, the declaration also calls for the United States and Russia to continue their nuclear disarmament efforts by promoting such bilateral negotiations as the new Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. It is natural for the two nuclear superpowers, which together have a vast majority of the world's nuclear weapons, to go ahead with nuclear arms cuts.
The declaration expresses grave concern about the tense situation in Ukraine, along with nuclear issues involving North Korea and Iran.
In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances that was exchanged by Russia, the United States and Britain, with Ukraine after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, Russia guaranteed Ukraine's territorial integrity in return for Ukraine's abolition of former Soviet-made nuclear weapons.
Russia's intervention in Ukraine this time can apparently be taken to mean that the nuclear nation has reneged the memorandum. This could lead to a global loss in trust of the nuclear abolition agreement, thereby reversing the tide of nuclear disarmament. It was therefore natural for the declaration to call for observing the memorandum.
By hosting the Hiroshima meeting, Japan's position in favor of nuclear abolition could be engraved strongly onto the international community.
Japan, which has no nuclear weaponry, still needs the nuclear umbrella offered by the United States. China has been expanding its nuclear capabilities while North Korea has not halted its nuclear development programs, thereby posing serious nuclear threats to Japan.
With this in mind, it is necessary to take a practical approach toward nuclear arms reduction.
