UN chief warns nuclear risks rising in Hiroshima anniversary message

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday warned that the world is facing growing nuclear dangers as geopolitical tensions deepen, urging nations to reject nuclear deterrence and recommit to diplomacy and disarmament.

“Eighty-one years ago, Hiroshima was reduced to ruins. Tens of thousands of people were killed. And our world came face to face with the catastrophic power of nuclear war,” Guterres said in a message to commemorate the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US.

The Aug. 6, 1945, bombing during World War II left an estimated 140,000 victims dead by the end of the year, while an atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later killed an estimated 74,000 victims.

Guterres warned that the observance comes at a time of “deepening geopolitical division, rising mistrust, and intensifying competition,” adding that the safeguards that have helped prevent nuclear catastrophe for decades are under increasing pressure.

He noted that the long-running decline in global nuclear arsenals is reversing, the international norm against nuclear testing is under threat and worldwide military spending hit $2.9 trillion in 2025.

The secretary-general also cautioned that “nuclear sabers are being rattled once again in the name of power and coercion.”

“Peace is not secured through fear and might. Peace is built through trust,” he said, urging greater investment in dialogue, diplomacy, international cooperation and adherence to international law.

He urged all countries, particularly nuclear-armed states, to reduce nuclear risks, rebuild confidence, strengthen the global disarmament regime and advance toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Rejecting the notion that nuclear weapons guarantee security, Guterres said nations must abandon “the zero-sum logic that nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantee of security, when they are in fact the very opposite.”

He also noted that the UN General Assembly’s first resolution in 1946 demanded the elimination of nuclear weapons, saying that goal remains “unfulfilled — but not unachievable.”

“On this 81st anniversary, let’s act with clarity and conviction. 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,” Guterres added.

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