NPT Review Conference Ends Without Adopting Final Document

米ニューヨークで開かれていた核拡散防止条約（NPT）再検討会議は22日夜（日本時間23日午前）、成果文書を採択できないまま閉幕した。

Mogi Tōru, the Japanese foreign minister, stated on the 23rd that the failure to adopt the final document was "extremely regrettable." He added, "Amidst deepening divisions in the international community regarding nuclear disarmament, the maintenance and strengthening of the NPT remain crucial. Japan will continue to advance realistic and practical initiatives step by step towards the realization of a 'world without nuclear weapons.'"

Japan, surrounded by nuclear-power-increasing China and nuclear-development-rushing North Korea, takes a cautious stance on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force in 2021, including observer participation, due to security reasons. On the other hand, Japan has positioned the NPT, which nuclear-weapon states also participate in, as an effective framework for nuclear disarmament. Therefore, the reality is that they wanted to avoid a situation where the NPT becomes hollowed out by the third consecutive failure to adopt a final document.

This time, the situation became one where the assertions of the US, China, Russia, and others directly clashed over North Korea's denuclearization and Iran's nuclear development issues. Although 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Japan's ratification of the NPT, it was deputy foreign ministers and others, not the foreign minister, who participated.

Vietnam, the presiding country supported by Japan, deleted a considerable number of expressions in the document draft that were subject to debate, but the conflict was not resolved until the end. Japan, the only country to have experienced atomic bombings, has so far designated itself as a "bridge between nuclear-weapon states and non-nuclear-weapon states," but it was unable to exert leadership, and the conference became one with "a mountain of issues" (according to an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

During the conference, there were also instances where Japan was criticized by China, with whom relations have soured. In a speech, the Chinese representative appealed, "The international community should resolutely prevent Japan from acquiring nuclear weapons," to which Japan retorted.

Mogi stated at a press conference on the 22nd, "China's speech contained baseless accusations and many errors, and is utterly unacceptable. We will respond calmly and resolutely to factually unfounded statements." [Ryuko Tadokoro]