Draft resolution formally submitted on U.N. nuke ban talks

The draft, a copy of which was obtained by Kyodo News, was submitted to the First Committee on disarmament and security issues at the U.N. General Assembly, Kyodo reports.

The draft calls for talks to be held twice next year -- one round from March 27 to 31 and the other from June 15 through July 7 in New York to negotiate a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons.

It suggests the negotiations be conducted in line with General Assembly rules, including the principle of majority rule, while pointing to the need for participation by nongovernmental organizations and other members of civil society.

The United States has made clear its objection to any resolution calling for multilateral talks on the matter. Japan, the world's sole atom-bombed country, which is also under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, has yet to state its position.

The draft of the resolution comes after a U.N. working group on nuclear disarmament in August adopted a report recommending to the General Assembly that negotiations begin in 2017 to make nuclear weapons illegal.

If endorsed at the First Committee around the end of this month or early next month, the draft would then be sent to the plenary session of the General Assembly to be convened in December.

Also Thursday, Japan tabled a draft resolution on the abolition of nuclear weapons to the First Committee, the 23rd year in a row Tokyo has submitted such a document. All of the past ones have been adopted by the General Assembly.

This year's draft resolution includes words of determination to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime and calls for utmost efforts toward the success of an NPT review conference to be held in 2020.

Source: Kyodo