TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Nuclear deterrence should not be the "final form of security," a Japanese forum said Monday in its recommendations for a key U.N. nonproliferation conference to be held next year, urging nuclear-armed states to lead a global disarmament movement.

Following Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in its war against Ukraine and amid North Korea's continued weapons development, the forum -- composed mainly of scholars -- said the risk of a nuclear conflict has risen to its highest level in decades.

The proposals for the 2026 review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty were finalized by the forum on Monday. The International Group of Eminent Persons for a World without Nuclear Weapons held a two-day meeting in Tokyo from Sunday.

The international community must "reduce nuclear risks and revitalize efforts toward disarmament through concrete and cooperative steps," Takashi Shiraishi, former chancellor of the Prefectural University of Kumamoto, who chaired the forum, told reporters.

The recommendations followed Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government skipping a U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons gathering in March, despite calls for Japan to attend, given its history as the only country to have experienced atomic bombings.

The forum has held six rounds of talks since its launch in 2022 under the initiative of then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Ishiba's predecessor and a lawmaker representing a constituency in Hiroshima, which was devastated by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945.

Of the forum's 15 members, 12 are from 11 foreign countries, including the nuclear-armed states Britain, China, France, India, Russia and the United States, as well as non-nuclear countries such as Argentina, Germany, Indonesia, Jordan and New Zealand.