Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is planning to visit the United States from late July and hold a meeting with his counterparts from a coalition of nonnuclear weapons states in New York, sources familiar with the plan have said.
The ministerial gathering of the 12-member Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative is envisaged as Japan hopes to build the momentum for a successful conclusion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference to be held in August.
At their last meeting in Nagoya in 2019, the coalition members, including Japan, Australia and Germany, issued a statement calling on nuclear weapons states to report their nuclear capabilities to enhance transparency.