Prime Minister Kishida attends the High-Level Launch Meeting of the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) (Summary)
On September 23, from 4:00PM (September 24, from 3:00AM, Japan Time) for approximately 50 minutes, Mr. KISHIDA Fumio, Prime Minister of Japan, during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, held a High-Level Launch Meeting of the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). The overview of the meeting is as follows.
Japan places high importance on an FMCT, as a realistic and practical effort to realize a world without nuclear weapons. Based on this view, in the "G7 Leaders' Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament" issued at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May last year, the G7 leaders strongly urged all countries to refocus political attention towards an FMCT. In addition, Japan announced the launch of the "Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT)," at the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Briefing on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in March this year, which is the first time for Japan to host the Security Council meeting which focused on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The High-Level Meeting confirmed the launch of the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), among the participating countries.
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In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Kishida pointed out that it is even more necessary to start negotiations on an FMCT as early as possible, which limits the quantitative improvement of nuclear weapons by banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, as the world is on the cusp of a reversal of the decreasing trend of the global number of nuclear arsenals for the first time since the peak of the Cold War. Prime Minister Kishida also stated that he is convinced that further increasing political interest in and revitalizing the discussion on an FMCT will build momentum toward an early start of negotiations, which will ultimately lead to the maintenance and strengthening of the NPT regime. Prime Minister Kishida also mentioned that Japan will work on promote the understanding of the realities of the atomic bombings on the 80th year since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagataki.
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Next, Dr. NAKAMITSU Izumi, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs of the United Nations, gave a brief remarks, representing the UN, followed by speeches from high-level representatives of the Friends of FMCT member states, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo, Nigerian Defense Minister Mohammed Abubakar, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for the United Nations Ray Collins, German Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tobias Lintner, and Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Edmondo Cirielli.
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After the meeting, the member countries of the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) issued a joint press release , announcing that they have launched the Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), will work closely to raise political interest in an FMCT, and will work with countries and partners to start negotiations as soon as possible.
(Reference1) Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT)
A treaty aimed at banning the production of fissile material (highly enriched uranium, plutonium, etc.) that is the raw material for nuclear weapons, and preventing further increases in the number of nuclear weapons. In 1993, then U.S. President Clinton proposed negotiations for the treaty. Negotiations have yet to begin. Japan attaches importance to the early start of negotiations on an FMCT.
(Reference2) The Friends of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT Friends)
The “FMCT Friends” is a cross-regional group with the participation of both nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear-weapon States which aims to maintain and enhance political attention on an FMCT and to contribute to expand the support for the negotiation of an FMCT. Member countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States of America.
