Middle East Regional Meeting and South Asia Regional Meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

September 25, 2009
Japanese

The Middle East Regional Meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament will be held on September 29 (Tue) and 30 (Wed) in Cairo. The South Asia Regional Meeting will be held on October 3 (Sat) and 4 (Sun) in New Delhi. Yoriko Kawaguchi, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Hon. Gareth Evans AO, former Foreign Minister of Australia, will serve as co-chairs for both meetings.
The main goals of the international commission are to contribute to the success of the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, as well as to offer proposals towards a world free of nuclear weapons ahead of the review conference from a medium and long-term viewpoint. The Middle East Regional Meeting and South Asia Regional Meeting are held separately from the commission's plenary meetings to gain support in the region for the commission's activities. At the meetings, commissioners (mainly commission chairs and members from the region) hold discussions with government-affiliated and civilian experts from the Middle East and South Asia regions about the regional issues in the area of nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy that the commission is dealing with.
Working together the Government of Australia, the Government of Japan will continue to provide its support as the Secretariat of the Commission, so that the Commission can present a path toward a peaceful world free of nuclear weapons as well as measures to maintain and strengthen the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime based on the NPT.

(Reference) The International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament

At the Japan-Australia Summit in July 2008, then-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd agreed to establish the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament as a joint initiative between Japan and Australia, and former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Yoriko Kawaguchi and former Foreign Minister of Australia Gareth Evans were appointed as co-chairs. The commission deals with the issues of nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It will also issue a report including specific recommendations ahead of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference that will be held in May 2010. Four plenary meetings will be held in total before the report is presented. The first was held in Sydney from October 20-21, 2008, the second was held in Washington, DC from February 14-15, 2009, and the third was held in Moscow from June 20-21, 2009. The fourth will be held in Japan (Hiroshima) in October. In addition, the Latin American Regional Meeting (Santiago) and the Northeast Asia Regional Meeting (Beijing) were held in May 2009.

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