On Tuesday 26 September 2017, 55 AsiaPacific political, diplomatic, military and civil society leadership figures, who are members of the AsiaPacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN), signed a statement urging that nuclear crises are best resolved diplomatically, not militarily; and that internationally negotiated deals to resolve nuclear crises should be respected by all parties.

Specifically, they endorsed the group statement published on 18 September by their counterparts, the Leadership Network (ELN), on the need to sustain the July 2015 Iran nuclear deal that has already produced significant practical actions to contain the threat of possible nuclear weaponization. Unilateral US actions to walk away from or renegotiate the Iran agreement could jeopardize it, they warn. This would also entail potentially damaging repercussions in the AsiaPacific on efforts to find an acceptable political solution to the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula caused by North Koreas illegal nuclear and missile programs.

The full statement and the complete list of signatories can be found here.

Professor Ramesh Thakur is Co-Convenor of the AsiaPacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN)