Closing Statement by H.E. Mr. Akio Suda
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament
at the NPT Review Conference in 2010

May 28, 2010

Mr. President,

My delegation expresses its utmost appreciation for your strong leadership, Ambassador Libran Cabactulan, that has guided this Review Conference to today's achievement. I would also like to thank the chairs of the Main Committees and Subsidiary Bodies as well as the Secretariat for their tremendous contribution.

This Conference faced enormous difficulties on many issues. Delegations expressed their views and negotiated hard both in the Plenary and in the Main Committees, but in the end demonstrated their utmost flexibility to reach consensus on the landmark action plans on all three pillars of the Treaty.

A very important contribution to the long way reaching this result was made by a number of initiatives taken by the US, beginning with the President Obama's Prague speech in April last year. Concrete measures by other nuclear-weapon States, including the signature of the new START Treaty also made a significant contribution.

The agreement on action plans on all three pillars is unprecedented. It would bring us closer towards a world free of nuclear weapons. In particular, the Conference agreed under Action 5 to call on the nuclear-weapon States to promptly engage with a view to a number of concrete steps and to report their undertakings to the 2014 PrepCom. The 2015 Review Conference will then take stock and consider the next steps. Also the Conference agreed that transparency is one of the principles of nuclear disarmament along with irreversibility and verifiability. Indeed, transparency is the most fundamental requirement to further promote nuclear disarmament. It is thus highly commendable that most nuclear-weapon States are reducing their arsenals in a transparent manner as evidenced by the US and UK's release of information during this Conference on the total number of their nuclear holdings.

The Conference also agreed to encourage all States Parties yet to do so to conclude and bring into force additional protocols as soon as possible. The Conference agreed to the importance of safeguards, security and safety when developing nuclear energy.

At the same time, we have to say that the action plans do not fully meet our expectations. For example, despite numerous, urgent calls by non-nuclear-weapon States, the importance of upholding and declaring of a moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons was not mentioned in the final document. The moratorium on fissile material production and the moratorium on nuclear testing are both indispensable in the process of further nuclear disarmament and should be realized on a global basis.

As many of you are probably aware, a couple of thousand people including around a hundred hibakushas, atomic bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- many of whom are over 70 or 80 years old -- flew here from Japan to closely follow with great interest what we diplomats could come up with in order to fulfill their aspiration of the total elimination of nuclear weapons. In this regard, I have to admit that the outcome, though it was close to maximum achievable this time, is certainly not satisfactory.

Nonetheless, this Conference was overall a great success, especially when compared to 2005. Even compared to the Review Conference in 2000, there have been many steps forward. Now with this achievement in hand, we all have to move on and implement faithfully what we agreed to. And let us all come back here in five years time with great enthusiasm.

Thank you.