Sixty-four government officials, scholars and private-sector experts from 22 countries started four days of discussions at a U.N. conference here Tuesday on worldwide nuclear disarmament.
"The U.N. will more and more be required to work with nongovernmental organizations and local municipalities (to carry out disarmament)," former U.N. Undersecretary General Yasushi Akashi told the meeting.
Ralph Cossa, secretary general of the Hawaii-based nonprofit Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, applauded the achievements of Japan and the United States in helping maintain peace in the region.
Under the banner "Disarmament and the United Nations in the 21st Century: Strategy and Action," the participants -- from countries including the U.S., India and Pakistan -- are to re-evaluate a disarmament agreement reached in May at a U.N. conference to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The May conference, held in New York, was the first since the NPT was extended indefinitely in 1995.
The agreement calls for the world's five full-fledged nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- to make an unequivocal undertaking to scrap their nuclear arsenals.
The participants in the Akita conference also discussed Northeast Asian security issues involving North and South Korea as well as China and Taiwan.
Japan has hosted all the past 11 sessions of the conference.