Statement by Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs, on the Joint Understanding Signed by the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I) Follow-on Treaty

July 7, 2009
Japanese

On July 6 (Mon), Mr. Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, and Mr. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, at their meeting in Moscow, made an announcement on the Joint Understanding on negotiations for concluding a new treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I (START I).
Japan welcomes this Joint Understanding, which is a result of the continued negotiations between Russia and the United States based on the joint statement released by both presidents on April 1. It involves an agreement on levels of the reduction of nuclear warheads and their delivery vehicles, which indicates that progress has been made in the negotiations for the treaty.
Japan hopes that negotiations will be concluded on the basis of this agreement before December 2009, when START I is due to expire. Japan also expects the conclusion of a significant treaty will contribute to the progress in global nuclear disarmament in which other nuclear-weapon states will participate, as well as to the success of the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.

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