TOKYO: The second meeting of the Japan-led International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons, or IGEP, started in Tokyo on Tuesday.

In a video message to the group, chaired by Prefectural University of Kumamoto Chancellor Takashi Shiraishi, Japanese Foreign Minister HAYASHI Yoshimasa said that “the situation surrounding nuclear disarmament is becoming even more severe, but that is why we must not stop progress.”

The remark was an apparent reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

By looking at the discussions of the IGEP meeting and other arguments, “Japan hopes to send a strong message for achieving a world without nuclear weapons” at the summit of the Group of Seven major democracies in Hiroshima, western Japan, next month, Hayashi said.

Meanwhile, Shiraishi said that he is “concerned about the impact of the worsening situation on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) regime.”

A total of 14 experts, including those from nuclear powers such as the United States, China and Russia and nonnuclear states, are attending the meeting in person or online.

They are set to discuss a road map toward nuclear abolition in the two-day IGEP meeting through Wednesday, at a time when Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons and North Korea’s nuclear development are raising tensions.

The group was formed at the initiative of Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio, and its first meeting was held last December in Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities attacked with U.S. atomic bombs in August 1945, in the closing days of World War II.

Also on Tuesday, participants of the meeting visited Kishida at the prime minister’s office. Kishida told them that at the upcoming G7 summit, he will send out a message for realizing a world without nuclear weapons.

“Maintaining and enhancing the NPT regime is the only realistic way to realize a world without nuclear weapons,” Kishida stressed.

“It’s important to proceed steadily with realistic and practical efforts,” he added, also having in mind the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT.

JIJI Press