Hiroshima Mayor Matsui to deliver speech and stress significance of Hiroshima Vision at preparatory committee of NPT Review Conference
Jul. 22, 2023
by Fumiyasu Miyano, Staff Writer
On July 21, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui held a news conference and announced he would deliver a speech at the first Preparatory Committee of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, scheduled to begin on July 31 in Vienna, Austria. He said he would mention the significance of the “Hiroshima Vision,” a document with a focus on nuclear disarmament that was released at the summit meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations (the G7 summit).
Mr. Matsui said he would participate in a session of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be convened on August 2. He also said, “I will state the significance of the Hiroshima Vision, which reaffirmed the promise to realize a world without nuclear weapons.” He will also meet with the chair of the preparatory committee and exchange opinions with officials of Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace, for which he serves as president.
At the news conference, Mr. Matsui presented his view that the language in the Hiroshima Vision is no different than an acknowledgement that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and the NPT are not in conflict, based on a sentence in the vision that says, “A world without nuclear weapons cannot be achieved without nuclear non-proliferation.” He then called on NPT member nations not to discuss confrontations but to steadily discuss how to implement Article 6 (of the NPT, which stipulates the obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament).
At the preparatory committee meeting, Masahi Ieshima, 81, a resident of Tokyo and representative director of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, who experienced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, will also deliver a speech. Mr. Ieshima said, “Due to aging, A-bomb survivors’ appeals are in the final phase. It’ll be too late unless we steer toward nuclear abolition now.”
(Originally published on July 22, 2023)
On July 21, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui held a news conference and announced he would deliver a speech at the first Preparatory Committee of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, scheduled to begin on July 31 in Vienna, Austria. He said he would mention the significance of the “Hiroshima Vision,” a document with a focus on nuclear disarmament that was released at the summit meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations (the G7 summit).
Mr. Matsui said he would participate in a session of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be convened on August 2. He also said, “I will state the significance of the Hiroshima Vision, which reaffirmed the promise to realize a world without nuclear weapons.” He will also meet with the chair of the preparatory committee and exchange opinions with officials of Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace, for which he serves as president.
At the news conference, Mr. Matsui presented his view that the language in the Hiroshima Vision is no different than an acknowledgement that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and the NPT are not in conflict, based on a sentence in the vision that says, “A world without nuclear weapons cannot be achieved without nuclear non-proliferation.” He then called on NPT member nations not to discuss confrontations but to steadily discuss how to implement Article 6 (of the NPT, which stipulates the obligation to negotiate nuclear disarmament).
At the preparatory committee meeting, Masahi Ieshima, 81, a resident of Tokyo and representative director of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, who experienced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, will also deliver a speech. Mr. Ieshima said, “Due to aging, A-bomb survivors’ appeals are in the final phase. It’ll be too late unless we steer toward nuclear abolition now.”
(Originally published on July 22, 2023)
