Secretary-General António Guterres Tells Mayors in Nagasaki
New York, N.Y. — Eighty years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the “only guarantee” against the use of nuclear weapons today is their “total elimination”, the U.N. Secretary-General said on Friday.
Inspired by the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings at the end of World War II who turned their suffering into a powerful appeal for peace, António Guterres renewed his call for a world free of nuclear weapons in a video message to the 11th General Conference of Mayors for Peace in Nagasaki.
United against nuclear weapons, the conference is an opportunity for mayors from around the world to discuss and adopt key priorities in support of global denuclearization.
‘No place in our world’
“Nuclear weapons have no place in our world,” said Mr. Guterres in his video-message, as they only offer the “illusion of safety and the certainty of devastation,” he said.
Calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, the Secretary-General urged all participants at the conference to “keep mobilising communities, inspiring young people, and building peace from the ground up.”
“I urge all States to recommit to nuclear disarmament,” he said.
A better world
“I commend Mayors for Peace for your unwavering commitment to a better world,” said the Secretary-General, as the organization aims at creating real momentum for the realization of a peaceful world without nuclear weapons.
In honor of the hibakusha, and in the memory of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mr. Guterres made an impassioned call for action to end the nuclear threat once and for all.
End the arms race
Speaking later at the official memorial in Nagasaki to remember the dead, U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu said on behalf of Mr. Guterres that the shadow of nuclear weapons looms all too large.
“They have returned to the centre of national security strategies and are being brandished as tools of coercion. Meanwhile, military spending has reached record highs — while investments in peace and sustainable development falter,”, she added.
“Peace and security cannot be achieved through an arms race,” she said, calling on countries to re-commit to the proven tools of disarmament; “dialogue, diplomacy, confidence building, transparency, and arms control and reduction.”
Summary
Eighty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres calls for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, stating they offer only the illusion of safety and the certainty of devastation. Addressing mayors globally, he urges mobilizing communities, inspiring youth, and building peace from the ground up. The Mayors for Peace conference aims for worldwide denuclearization and honors hibakusha, reinforcing the message: nuclear weapons have no place in our world.
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TAGS: United Nations, nuclear weapons, António Guterres, global disarmament, Hiroshima, Nagasaki,
Mayors for Peace, hibakusha, arms race, peace conference, denuclearization, international relations
