UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a new campaign to rid the world of nukes, warning that the drums of nuclear war are beating once again.
In a special message on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the UN chief called the international community to learn from the atomic cataclysm that befell the Japanese city on August 6, 1945.
He said that mistrust and division are on the rise. The nuclear shadow that loomed over the Cold War has re-emerged. Some nations are recklessly rattling the nuclear saber once again, threatening to use these weapons of annihilation.
Over 200,000 people were killed when the US dropped nuclear bombs on the two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 1945, bringing an end to World War Two.
UN Chief Urges Total Elimination of Atomic Weapons
In his remarks, the UN Secretary-General said that pending the total elimination of all atomic weapons, the world community must speak as one, as he highlighted in his New Agenda for Peace. Launched in July, the Agenda demands that Member States urgently immediately to pursuing a world free of atomic weapons and reinforce the global norms against their proliferation and use.
With increasing global tensions, a record level of world military expenditure also reached 2,240 billion dollars last year.
