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Prime minister speaks at U.N. meeting, urges world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki

by Keiichiro Yamamoto, Staff Writer, dispatched from New York

On September 26, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called on world leaders attending a high-level meeting on nuclear disarmament, held at United Nations headquarters in New York, to visit the A-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mr. Abe is seeking to strengthen support for Japan’s hope to create “a world without nuclear weapons” by deepening understanding of the use of nuclear weapons.

This is the first time that such a meeting focused only on the issue of nuclear disarmament has been held at the U.N. General Assembly. In his remarks at the opening session, Mr. Abe stressed that the humanitarian consequences resulting from the use of nuclear arms would be unimaginable, and stated his hope that political leaders of all stripes would visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to see the impact of such weapons firsthand.

The prime minister said he welcomed the speech made by U.S. President Barack Obama in June, when he announced his willingness to further reduce the numbers of America’s deployed strategic nuclear weapons. This would be an additional reduction beyond the total already agreed upon between the United States and Russia. Mr. Abe said he hopes Mr. Obama’s proposal will evolve into multilateral negotiations with all nations which possess nuclear weapons.

Mr. Abe also touched on developments involving the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, which has been mired in a long stalemate over a treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and other issues, and argued for the fulfillment of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

(Originally Published on September 27, 2013)

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