Statement by Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs, on Joint Statement by the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Further Reductions in Strategic Offensive Arms, and related matters

April 2, 2009
Japanese

On April 1 (Wednesday), Mr. Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, and Mr. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, at their meeting in London, issued joint statements on nuclear disarmament, including the initiation of negotiations for concluding a new arms control treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I).
Japan, which has continually expressed its expectation for nuclear disarmament by all nuclear weapon countries including the United States and Russia, welcomes the above commitment by the United States and Russia to the long-term goal of achieving a nuclear-free world involving all states concerned.
Japan especially welcomes the agreement on initiating negotiations for a new treaty to succeed START I, which is due to expire in December 2009, as well as the expressed intention to aim for reductions of nuclear arsenals beyond the level of the Treaty Between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions (Moscow Treaty).Japan also welcomes President Obama’s reiteration of his intention to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
It is Japan’s strong expectation that these efforts by the United States and Russia on nuclear disarmament will increase momentum towards global nuclear disarmament involving other nuclear weapon countries.

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