Istanbul to seek halt to nuclear arms

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Japanese experts walk in front of a reactor at Fukushima nuclear power. EPA photo

Istanbul will host the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) launched by 10 countries seeking the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

The initiative launched by Turkey, Germany, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Poland and Chile, will hold its upcoming ministerial meeting on June 16, a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The NPDI meeting, under the auspices of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, will assess the outcomes of the first meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (RevCon) held in Vienna last month, moreover, they will discuss the initiative’s contributions to the NPT RevCon process, the statement said.

A conference planned for 2012 to maintain a region free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East will be high on the agenda of the Istanbul meeting.

Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates will be represented at the ministerial level, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.