Attendance of Ms. Kawaguchi, Special Envoy of the Government of Japan, to the Fourth Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Ministerial Meeting and the Side-event on Water and Sanitation

September 19, 2008

Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi will visit New York from September 23 (Tue) to 25 (Thu) to attend as Special Envoy of the Government of Japan the CTBT Ministerial Meeting and the Side-event on Water and Sanitation, which will be held at the U.N. Headquarters on September 24 (Wed).
The Government of Japan regards the CTBT as a practical and concrete measure for realizing a nuclear-weapon free world, under the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime founded on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and it attaches utmost importance to its early entry into force. Ms. Kawaguchi will attend the CTBT Ministerial Meeting, and stress the importance of the CTBT’s early entry into force, as Special Envoy of the Government of Japan, which is the only nation in the world to have suffered atomic devastation.
To contribute to the High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals, the Government of Japan will co-host a side-event, “Water and Sanitation for All”, under the cosponsorship of Germany, the Netherlands and Tajikistan, in the afternoon of September 24. Ms. Kawaguchi will present the achievements in the field of water and sanitation of the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit and TICAD IV, and call for the international community to strengthen global efforts to achieve the MDG water and sanitation target.
In the morning of September 24, Ms. Kawaguchi will also attend the ministerial-level breakfast meeting, “Climate Change and Development: Progress on Finance for Adaptation,” which will be co-hosted by the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzerland and Bangladesh, to exchange opinions with other countries about the level, the sources, and mechanism for financing adaptation by developing countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.

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