EU council chief decries nuke threat in Hiroshima
HIROSHIMA: European Council President Charles Michel condemned Russia yesterday for threating to use nuclear weapons following its invasion of Ukraine, saying during his Hiroshima visit it is a “shameful and unacceptable” threat to global security.
In one of the two Japanese cities devastated by the 1945 US atomic bombings at the end of World War II, Mr Michel said he feels “seized by an intense determination” to eliminate nuclear weapons after visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
In a speech following his 35-minute tour of the museum on the history and aftermath of the bombing, Mr Michel said Hiroshima is a “stark reminder of the urgency” to rid the world of nuclear arms, and that the suffering there and in Nagasaki was “haunting even today”.
Mr Michel visited Hiroshima to highlight EU opposition to nuclear arms amid tensions heightened by threats including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and North Korean ballistic missile tests.
In the speech, Mr Michel also called recent North Korean missile tests “illegal and provocative”.
The European Council president laid flowers at the cenotaph for victims of the bombing on Aug 6, 1945, and met with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui as well as atomic bomb survivors.
His predecessor Donald Tusk became the first EU leader to officially visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in June 2019.
Mr Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Thursday. Japan and the EU have summits at least once a year.
The EU leaders and Kishida said in a joint statement released after the talks, “We remain committed to the ultimate goal of realizing a world without nuclear weapons, regardless of the current severe international situation.”