Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosted a meeting Wednesday with leaders and ministers of five other countries, including Australia, Canada and Germany, at which they agreed that the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty should take effect "without further delay."
With Russia and North Korea seen as posing an increasingly real nuclear threat, the first leaders-level meeting of the "Friends of the CTBT" was held in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly's annual session.
The six countries, also including Finland and the Netherlands, reaffirmed their determination to pursue the CTBT's "entry into force for the benefit of all states" in a joint statement.