Citizens Urge All Nations to Ratify Nuke Ban Treaty at Nagasaki Meeting

November 19, 2018

Nagasaki--Members of nongovernmental organizations, disarmament experts and other citizens from Japan and abroad on Sunday urged all nations to ratify a U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons at an early date.

In a declaration adopted on the final day of a three-day meeting in the southwestern Japan city of Nagasaki, they requested the Japanese government to end its reliance on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

The declaration adopted at the Sixth Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons called on nuclear states to fulfill their nuclear disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

It also asked the United States and Russia to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and start new disarmament talks.

The declaration also urged countries concerned to start negotiations to establish a nuclear weapon-free zone in Northeast Asia.

About 3,600 people, including disarmament experts from the United States, Russia, China and six other nations, took part in the meeting in the city, the site of a U.S. atomic bombing in 1945.

The discussions served as a starting point for a new stage of the movement for nuclear abolition, Masao Tomonaga, chair of the event's executive committee, said at a press conference. Jiji Press