The Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament (EPG), proposed by former Foreign Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida and convened by his successor, Minister Taro Kono, provided recommendations to the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee of the 2020 Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT PrepCom). VCDNP’s Angela Kane was invited as a member of the EPG and helped draft the recommendations, which were submitted to the PrepCom’s Chair, Ambassador Adam Bugajski of Poland.
Mr. Kishida convened the EPG in the face of growing conflict between nuclear-weapons states (NWS) and non-nuclear-weapons states (NNWS), as well as between NNWS themselves. Ms. Kane is one of 16 experts of the EPG, including six Japanese experts and 10 from across the world. The EPG’s goal is to work towards substantive recommendations to the NPT process, chiefly by trying to rebuild trust between States Parties.
The recommendations, entitled “Building Bridges to Effective Nuclear Disarmament,” are available here. The Group of Eminent Persons will continue its work during 2018-2019 and submit recommendations to the third and final NPT PrepCom.
