UNITED NATIONS, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 6th Aug, 2026) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday warned that global peace is gravely imperiled as countries use the threat of nuclear weapons as tools of coercion.
“Nuclear sabers are being rattled once again in the name of power and coercion,” the UN chief said in a message, delivered by Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu, to the Peace Memorial ceremony on the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in Japan, on Wednesday.
On 6 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, reducing the city to ruins, killing tens of thousands of people and bringing the the world “face to face with the catastrophic power of nuclear war”.
“Hiroshima stands as an inspiring example of resilience, renewal and hope,” the UN chief said,
“Across generations, its people remind us that, even after the darkest moments, we can choose and build a different future.”
Just two days later, a second nuclear bomb targeted Nagasaki on 8 August 1945. The two blasts killed around 120,000 people, with a similar number dying later of burn and radiation injuries, and left behind 650,000 survivors, known as the hibakusha.
Providing a snapshot of the current nuclear weapon landscape, Ms.
Nakamitsu said deepening geopolitical division, rising mistrust and intensifying competition are straining the norms and guardrails that have helped prevent a “nuclear cataclysm”.
The decades-long trend in nuclear arsenal reductions is reversing, the global norm against nuclear testing is under threat and worldwide, military spending jumped to $2.9 trillion in 2025, she warned.
“That promise remains unfulfilled, but not unachievable,” Ms. Nakamitsu said, emphasizing that peace is not secured through fear and might, but through trust, sustained investment in dialogue, diplomacy, and international cooperation, an unwavering commitment to international law and bolstering the global disarmament regime.
Peace is also achieved through all States – especially the nuclear armed – taking action to reduce risks, rebuild confidence, and advance towards total disarmament. There also needs to be “a firm rejection of the zero-sum logic that nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantee of security, when they are in fact the very opposite.”
She called for clarity and conviction on the 81st anniversary: “Let’s choose dialogue over division, cooperation over confrontation and common security over narrow advantage, and let’s move closer to a world where the tragedy of Hiroshima is never repeated.”
