Third Deputy-Ministerial Meeting of the Global Initiative (GI) to Combat Nuclear Terrorism

June 11, 2007

On June 11 (Mon), the Third Deputy-Ministerial Meeting of the ‘Global Initiative (GI) to Combat Nuclear Terrorism’ was held in Astana (Kazakhstan). Mr. Sergey Kislyak, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russian Federation, and Mr. John Rood, Assistant Secretary of the Department of State, USA, co-chaired the meeting, and representatives from 38 countries participated in it. The IAEA and the EU attended as observers. From the Government of Japan, a delegation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, led by Mr. Takeshi Nakane, Director-General of the Disarmament, Non-proliferation and Science Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took part in the meeting.

Although only twelve countries had joined the GI when the second meeting was held in February this year, the number rapidly increased to 51 later. In the third meeting, the participants exchanged views on the further expansion of partner nations in the future and the necessity of strengthening measures to combat nuclear terrorism, involving local governments.

In the meeting, the Government of Japan gave a presentation on events that it held to promote measures to combat nuclear terrorism in Asia. It also announced a package of about 150,000 US dollars for the IAEA Nuclear Security Fund this year to strengthen measures to combat nuclear terrorism in Asia. The joint chairpersons expressed appreciation for Japan’s contributions.

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