The speakers of the lower houses of the British, German, Italian, Canadian, Russian, U.S., French, and Japan’s parliaments met in Hiroshima to discuss nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

The G-8 has been holding meetings in this format on regular basis since 2002 following G-8 summit meetings. The agenda traditionally features two main items. One of these issues has to do with the preceding G-8 summit. This year’s G-8 presiding nation Japan has decided the MPs should focus on the parliaments’ contribution to consolidating peace and security. For symbolic reasons, Hiroshima has been chosen as the venue for the forum. The Japanese city was the first to have come under a nuclear attack 63 years ago. The tragedy can never be forgotten, says the Director of the Moscow-based Institute of Strategic Assessment and Analysis Sergei Oznobishchev.

Sergei Oznobishchev believes that the world has proved unable to cope with the problem of nuclear proliferation. There are the North Korean nuclear complex and Iran’s nuclear program that illustrate the point. The world community should therefore look for some fresh recipes to counter nuclear threats, as even the most powerful international organizations that have been around for decades sometimes do not reach the necessary result. There is a need for assessing accurate, well-thought-out and jointly-discussed model solutions. “We should turn to the processes that proved effective back in the 20th century, such as the reduction and scrapping of nuclear armaments, a process that was actually abandoned early this century,” Sergei Oznobishchev indicated.

During the G-8 MPs’ meeting in Hiroshima, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov has reiterated that Russia does support nuclear non-proliferation efforts. In this context he voiced concern about North Korea’s decision to suspend efforts to decommission its nuclear facilities. Boris Gryzlov noted that Russia would continue to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the same time he expressed apprehensions with respect to the threat of spreading technologies for developing low-yield nuclear charges.