Japan and Australia, both under the U.S. "nuclear umbrella," took a significant step Sunday toward nuclear disarmament. Their foreign ministers met in Perth and agreed to deepen discussions on reducing the role of nuclear weapons in national security strategy.
Japan has advocated an elimination of nuclear weapons, but has refrained from openly challenging the U.S. nuclear strategy. This self-restraint on Japan's part undoubtedly owed to its being under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, and it has certainly put a crimp in the nation's nuclear disarmament diplomacy.
But Katsuya Okada, who became foreign minister upon the change of government last year, broke from tradition, which resulted in Sunday's joint statement with his Australian counterpart, Stephen Smith.
According to the joint statement, the ministers "found worthy of consideration such ideas as enhancing the effectiveness of security assurances not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states, or retaining nuclear weapons solely for the purpose of deterring others from using such weapons, as a first step toward a world without nuclear weapons, and decided to deepen discussions on these issues."
Okada and Smith did not go as far as to demand the world's nuclear weapon states accept and act on the "negative security assurance" and "sole purpose" concepts. Still, we believe the decision by these two countries under the nuclear umbrella to review nuclear strategies has created an opening for future discussions on nuclear disarmament.
The International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), which is a joint initiative of the governments of Japan and Australia, released its final report last December.
The report proposes that all nuclear weapon states effectively declare, by 2012, that the "sole purpose" of possessing nuclear weapons is to deter the use of such weapons against their own states and their allies. The ICNND report also called for legally binding "negative security assurance" by nuclear weapon states not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states.
We hope Japan and Australia will deepen the discussions and map out a diplomatic strategy aimed at realizing those proposals.
In his note to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last December, Okada expressed his hope that Tokyo and Washington would jointly explore the possibility of applying the "sole purpose" and "negative security assurance" concepts to practical policy.
Washington is currently in the process of a "nuclear posture review" (NPR), and the concepts of "sole purpose" and "negative security assurance" are apparently being discussed. Under President Barack Obama, who has pledged to aim for a world free of nuclear weapons, we truly hope the United States will contribute to reducing the role of nuclear weapons.
In response to Obama's call for a nuclear-free world, efforts to change the current situation by political means are now being made not only in the Asia-Pacific region but also in Europe.
Spearheading efforts in Europe is German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who is demanding the removal of U.S. nuclear weapons deployed in Germany. During his visit to Japan last month, Westerwelle and Okada confirmed that their countries must lead the world in the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Historically, nuclear disarmament has advanced whenever some determined political leader takes steps to change the world substantively. We hope Okada will take advantage of the positive results of his meetings with his Australian and German counterparts and, working closely with other world leaders, use his political initiative to step up his disarmament diplomacy.
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