Today the Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament was presented by former foreign ministers Gareth Evans of Australia and Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Australia and Japan, their excellencies Kevin Rudd and Yukio Hatoyama. The Report, with its title “Eliminating Nuclear Threats”, comprises more than 200 pages and contains sharply focused recommendations for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference in May 2010.

The core recommendations of the report include:

• bringing into force by 2012 the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;
• a “follow-up” to the successor agreement to the START I Treaty between the USA and Russia, including the issue of sub-strategic nuclear weapons disarmament;
• preparing multilateralizing disarmament talks between all nuclear-weapon states;
• the use of nuclear weapons solely as a deterrent to protect against nuclear attack, thus precluding their use against non-nuclear-weapon states;
• a commitment by nuclear-weapon states to “no first use” by 2025;
• that a nuclear-weapon-free world should become a reality by 2025.

Federal Foreign Minister Dr Guido Westerwelle today (15 December) welcomed the recommmendations of the Evans-Kawaguchi Report:

”I think the Report offers important points for reflection. It sets out waymarks to guide us on the path to a nuclear-weapon-free world. Germany will do everything it can to ensure that the Report is discussed at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference in May 2010. The issue of sub-strategic nuclear weapons disarmament addressed in the Report is an important aim of the Federal Government, one which we share with our NATO partners and will discuss with them.“