Yoriko Kawaguchi: I highly appreciate Nazarbayev's and Kazakhstan government's efforts to create nuclear-free world

Co-chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament Yoriko Kawaguchi highly appreciates the efforts of President Nazarbayev and Kazakhstan Government to create the nuclear-free world, she told Tengrinews.kz after the meeting with Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yerzhan Kazykhanov. “I highly appreciate that Mr. Nazarbayev and Kazakhstan government are working hard to create the nuclear-free world,” she said answering the journalists' questions. Mrs. Kawaguchi arrived in Astana for the International Nuclear-Free World Forum. According to her, she arrived in Kazakhstan to spread the idea on the nuclear-free world. The battle for this idea is the main goal of her life, she said. According to Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan and Kazakhstan have much in common in their strive to change the world for the better and a big potential in nuclear nonproliferation. “Many residents of Japan need to change their life after the Fukushima disaster. Many Japanese clearly understand the danger of nuclear energy. Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered from nuclear weapons and many support the idea of rejecting them completely,” Kawaguchi said speaking about the opinion of Japanese people. The Japanese delegation led by Kawaguchi arrived to Kazakhstan for the Forum. It includes Mayor of Nagasaki who will be awarding the winners of the children's anti-nuclear drawings contest today, October 11. Besides, the Forum is attended by a citizen of Nagasaki, a witness of the bomb attack, who has survived after Americans dropped a nuclear bomb on the city. Participants of the Forum will visit Kurchatov town and Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site, where a meeting will be held on the 20th anniversary of the site's closing. The visitors will include Kazakhstan Foreign Minister, head of IAEA and Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.