1. The Reconstruction Process Enters Full Swing

2. PM Noda and FM Gemba Attend the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly

- PM Noda’s address to the General Assembly

- Third Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI)

- G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting (ministerial follow-up meeting on the Deauville Partnership)

- Ministerial-level side event on the MDGs

3. IAEA General Conference

2. Prime Minister Noda and Foreign Minister Gemba Attend the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Minister for Foreign Affairs Gemba leads discussions on various issues including non-proliferation and disarmament and the MDGs

Third Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative:

Moving towards a world with low nuclear risk

On September 21, the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) was held at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations. Spearheaded by Japan and Australia, the NPDI, a group of diverse countries throughout the world interested in non-proliferation and disarmament, was launched in September of last year at the meeting of the UN General Assembly. This ministerial meeting followed the second one held in Berlin in April 2011 and was sponsored and co-chaired by Japan and Australia. The meeting was held to review achievements during the one year since the group was formed and to discuss the direction of future efforts.

At the beginning of the meeting, Minister for Foreign Affairs Gemba noted that achievements have steadily been made, and these include proposing a draft standard nuclear disarmament reporting form for nuclear arms reductions in order to (a) work out a realistic plan to fulfill the group’s role as a bridge between countries that possess nuclear weapons and those that do not and (b) play a leading role in the medium- and long-term international debate to create a world with low nuclear risk. In addition, Foreign Minister Gemba stated that the NPDI has grown into an entity that draws the attention of the international community because of the lively debate among participating countries at the last two ministerial meetings. In the field of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, there are numerous issues that still must be resolved including the immediate commencement of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), and Foreign Minister Gemba emphasized the importance of adopting a stance that gives greater stress to action as the First Session of the NPT Preparatory Committee for the 2015 NPT Review Conference approaches.

Foreign ministers from six of the ten participating countries attended the meeting as the presence of the initiative has grown in the international community. It was extremely significant that there were actual full discussions on the draft standard nuclear disarmament reporting form and the immediate commencement of FMCT negotiations, an issue important to Japan. Having played a role in moving debate forward regarding not only the selection of the host country and facilitator for the International Conference on the establishment of Middle East Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was agreed at the 2010 NPT Review Conference and will be held in 2012, but also the importance of adopting a comprehensive approach that will involve all related parties, Turkey is expected to host the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative in the spring of next year, which was extremely significant. In addition, unanimous agreement was reached on the following content for the joint statement: (a) greater transparency in nuclear arms reductions, including providing the five nuclear armed countries with the reporting form for nuclear arms reductions; (b) support for the resolution that Canada wants to submit to the First Committee of the UN General Assembly in order to break through the stalemate at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on commencement of FMCT negotiations; (c) sharing experiences in making IAEA additional protocols universal; (d) practical proposals to strengthen export controls; (e) support for efforts to strengthen the global non-proliferation system and to promote the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones as a method to contribute to arms reductions; (f) energetically promoting non-proliferation and arms reduction education; and (g) maintaining an awareness of the benefits to citizens of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) verification system and commitment to promote the ratification of the treaty.