TWENTIETH UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT ISSUES

 

TO OPEN IN SAITAMA, JAPAN, ON 27 AUGUST

 

NEW YORK, 25 August (Office for Disarmament Affairs) -- The twentieth United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will take place in Saitama City, Japan, from 27 to 29 August 2008.  The Office for Disarmament Affairs, through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific, co-organized the Conference with the support of the Government of Japan and the city of Saitama.

This year’s Conference, with the overall theme of “Nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy: trends and challenges”, will address several critical issues in the fields of disarmament and non-proliferation, such as challenges to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime and initiatives to overcome them; nuclear renaissance and nuclear non-proliferation; security in East Asia and arms control; and cooperation with civil society.

The Conference will be opened by Hannelore Hoppe, Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.  Approximately 90 representatives of Governments, international organizations, academic and research institutions, as well as civil society will participate in the Conference.

The annual Conference, which has been hosted in Japan since 1989, is recognized as an important forum for frank dialogue and an exchange of views on pressing security and disarmament-related issues facing the international community.  It also addresses particular disarmament and non-proliferation concerns for the Asia-Pacific region.

The Conference is financed by a generous contribution from the Government of Japan.

For further information, please contact Mr. Xiaoyu Wang, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Regional Disarmament Branch, Office for Disarmament Affairs, tel.: +1 212 963 9440, fax: +1 212 963 4989, e-mail: wangxy@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record