A clear policy difference emerged between Japan and the United States when they had bilateral consultations before a U. N. panel adopted a Japanese resoluti
A clear policy difference emerged between Japan and the United States when they had bilateral consultations before a U. N. panel adopted a Japanese resolution this month calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, according to diplomatic sources.
The United States had opposed including some sentences referring to the importance of Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and agreements reached at the review conferences on the NPT in 1995,2000 and 2010 in the Japan-sponsored U. N. resolution, the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity recently told Kyodo News.
The article, which was not mentioned in a similar U. N. resolution the previous year, calls on nuclear-armed states to pursue nuclear disarmament.
The resolution, titled “United action with renewed determination toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons,” was adopted by the First Committee on disarmament issues at the U. N. General Assembly on Nov. 1.
But Japan’s key ally the United States abstained, calling it a “step back” from last year’s document, which it supported.
According to the sources, before the resolution was adopted by the committee, U. S. diplomats raised strong concerns about the draft that mentioned the article.
Also, the U. S. diplomats expressed strong opposition to a paragraph in it that urged all countries to take steps agreed to in the final documents of the NPT conferences, according to the sources.
The United States characterized the past agreements as “out of date” under the current security environment, the sources said.
The final document agreed to in 2000, for example, said there should be an “unequivocal undertaking” by nuclear weapon states to accomplish the complete elimination of their nuclear arsenals.
