The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) called on the G7 summit in Hiroshima to take concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament in remarks to dpa on Thursday made on the eve of the summit, reported dpa.
"It would be a dishonour to the survivors of the Hiroshima attack if they came here and met the Hibakusha, the survivors of nuclear weapons, without committing to concrete disarmament," ICAN director Daniel Högsta said.
Against the backdrop of the Russian threat to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, the G7 summit was taking place "in a hazardous global situation," he said.
Högsta called on G7 member countries to react to this threat by showing leadership. "They must commit themselves to a plan for comprehensive negotiations on nuclear disarmament that includes a ban on nuclear weapons," he said.
The ICAN director noted that North Korea was modernizing its arsenal along with other nuclear powers and called on the G7 to "engage diplomatically with North Korea by committing to nuclear disarmament, so that they can exert pressure on North Korea."
Peace Boat, ICAN's Japanese partner, called on Japan as host of the three-day summit to follow Germany's example in participating as an observer at a meeting of parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Akira Kawasaki from Peace Boat said that, while Germany was not a party, "it acknowledges the importance and significance of the treaty and has made know its readiness to cooperation with the treaty countries."
Germany has no nuclear weapons of its own but allows the United States to station nuclear weapons on its soil, which would in emergency be deployed by German aircraft.
- G7
- Protest
- Japan
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
