UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sounded a significant alarm over the status quo surrounding nuclear weapons, urging nuclear-armed countries to engage in disarmament.
Guterres addressed a meeting of high-level delegates from around the world at the UN in New York.
The gathering took place on Thursday, September 26, which the UN commemorates as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
Guterres said, “Not since the worst days of the Cold War has the specter of nuclear weapons cast such a dark shadow.”
The UN head said, “Nuclear saber-rattling has reached a fever pitch.” He said people “have even heard threats to use a nuclear weapon.”
His warning comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use nuclear arms.
Guterres said, “The first-hand, lived experience of the hibakusha — the brave survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — stand as clear reminders of where the nuclear path ends.”
But he said that “nearly 80 years later, nuclear-weapon states continue to roll the dice, resisting disarmament measures.” Guterres called on Russia and the United States to “return to the process of nuclear arms reductions.”
The gathering had the attendance of the Marshall Islands’ President Hilda Heine. The US conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Pacific archipelago from 1946 to 1958.
Islanders who were exposed to radiation are suffering from health problems. Residents of the Marshall Islands who were forced to relocate and have not been able to return to their homeland are calling for compensation and support.
Heine urged leaders of nuclear-armed nations to work toward nuclear disarmament. She said her country’s “pleas and warnings on the consequences of nuclear detonation seem again unheard by those with their finger on the button.”