During the meeting, on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, the calls for nuclear weapons elimination will be reiterated.

The UN Secretary-General (UNSG) António Guterres has repeatedly insisted on the pressing need for denuclearization, especially in view of the escalation of armed conflicts currently taking place on the planet.

Humanity is “one miscalculation away from annihilation”, Guterres recently warned, while estimating this risk “has not been seen since the height of the Cold War”.

“We´ve been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy or a shield to prevent geopolitical tensions from degenerating into nuclear war,” Guterres said past August.

About 13,000 nuclear weapons are being stockpiled in arsenals around the globe, at a time as proliferation risks are ramping up and safeguards to prevent escalation are weakening, Guterres recalled. “Eliminating nuclear weapons is the only guarantee they will never be used again,” he stated.

Days later, in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which experienced firsthand the impacts of an atomic bomb, Guterres called on today´s leaders to take the nuclear option off the table for good.

“It is time to proliferate peace,” he said.

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