The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a progression of the nuclear arms race last Thursday at an event commemorating the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
“I am deeply concerned by the lack of progress toward the goal of a nuclear-free world,” he said at the ceremony.
He also asserted he would “welcome first steps towards reducing the risk of nuclear catastrophe.”
“The only guarantee against the use of nuclear weapons is their total elimination,” he continued and then called on all states that possess nuclear weapons to “adopt risk reduction measures, individually and jointly.”
A new arms race has been sparked by nations that have been modernizing their nuclear arsenal, but there were steps taken by Russia and the US to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and also engage in a dialogue on arms control which was noteworthy.
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and a second on Nagasaki three days later, killing about 210,000 people by the end of that year. The nuclear attacks eventually brought about the end of Japan’s colonization and invasion of many East Asian countries, and the end of World War II.
