The G8 Summit: Japan-U.S. Cooperation On Nuclear Weapons

It has been three months since President Obama’s speech about his dream of a world without nuclear weapons. During the G8 summit in central Italy, the participating countries agreed to work on achieving the required conditions for a nuclear weapon-free world. Along with the U.S., Russian leaders agreed to a framework for a new nuclear disarmament treaty on the sixth of July. I welcome these developments as an opportunity for the total world abolition of nuclear weapons.

Of course, only having an “opportunity” is not enough to abolish nuclear weapons. But still, the fact that the nuclear states comprising G8: America, Russia, England and France, are set towards the same goal, has great significance. I would also hope for non-member China to be in agreement, because without cooperation between the five recognized nuclear powers under the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a nuclear weapon-free world will be impossible.

The leaders’ declaration encouraged efforts towards achieving quick results for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and also strongly supported the commencement of negotiations for the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which bans the production of high grade enriched uranium and plutonium. They have been proactive in dealing with the nuclear issue, and it has been a completely different summit from the previous ones.

“Different” because for 10 years, America has been slow to move on nuclear disarmament and arms control. The CTBT promoted by the Democratic Clinton administration was rejected by Congress in 1999, and the subsequent Republican Bush administration dismissed it as “meaningless.” The Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty proposed in the ’90s by President Clinton also did not lead to any substantial discussions.

I would like to think that this previously hindered ideal is in the process of bouncing back. President Obama voiced his intention to host a nuclear security summit in Washington, D.C., during March of next year. Meanwhile, foreign minister Hirofumi Nakasone also expressed his intention of having Japan host an international meeting regarding nuclear disarmament/non-proliferation before next year’s NPT reappraisal conference in May. If the Obama administration, which referred to the U.S.’s moral obligation as a nation which has used nuclear weapons; and Japan, the only country to have experienced a nuclear attack, can cooperate in nuclear disarmament/non-proliferation, it will be a joyous thing.

To completely abolish nuclear weapons, it is also important to deal with countries beyond the NPT, that possess or are suspected of possessing nuclear weapons (India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea). Naturally, the G8 leaders denounced North Korea, a menace that continues its nuclear tests and missile launches. But I also appreciated the leaders’ demand that North Korea address the abduction issue.

From here on, the challenge will be for the Obama administration to solidly put its declarations and ideas into practice. Though the resolution for the total abolition of nuclear weapons, submitted by Japan to the United Nations Assembly, has been adopted every year since 1994, various countries – such as the U.S. and North Korea – have been opposed (as recently as last year and the year before last). It is strange how the U.S. and North Korea were on the same side in this respect, but needless to say, isn’t the Obama administration’s approval of this resolution a step towards the noble goal of total abolition?