Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for reversing course and returning to a common path of nuclear disarmament to create a nuclear weapon free world. The UN chief made that call in a message on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons marked on Saturday.
The UN committed itself in 1946, to ridding the planet of nuclear weapons after the devastating death and destruction, and the aftermath of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was pointed out.
Almost seventy five years later “the world continues to live in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe,” the secretary-general said.
“Relationships between states possessing nuclear weapons are characterized by division, distrust and an absence of dialogue. As they increasingly choose to pursue strategic competition over cooperation, the dangers posed by nuclear weapons are becoming more acute.”
“This International Day highlights the need to reverse course and return to a common path to nuclear disarmament,” Guterres said.
