Delivering a speech on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs warned of the deepening geopolitical divisions and noted that the same weapons that caused so much devastation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now being used again as tools of coercion. Remembering the past means protecting and building peace today and in the future, she asserted, urging the eradication of the nuclear threat, for which she considered the elimination of such weapons to be essential.

Eighty years ago, the world changed forever. In an instant, Hiroshima was engulfed in flames. Tens of thousands of lives were lost. A city was reduced to ruins and humanity crossed a threshold of no return, she stated.

Today we remember those who perished, we stand in solidarity with their families, and we honor the survivors, whose voices became a moral force. Although their number decreases each year, their testimony and their message of peace will never abandon us, she said while calling to work for preventing wars, defending human dignity, and ensuring that the tragedies of the past are not repeated.

The signed commitments must lead to real change by strengthening the global disarmament regime, particularly the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, complemented by the momentum generated by the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, she stated.

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