Place of “absolute annihilation”: Baerbock promotes a world without nuclear weapons in Nagasaki

place of “absolute annihilation”
Baerbock promotes a world without nuclear weapons in Nagasaki

The names of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand for the devastating effects of the use of nuclear weapons. In Nagasaki, Foreign Minister Baerbock took this as an opportunity to speak out passionately for a world without nuclear weapons.

During a visit to the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, Japan, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock advocated a world without nuclear weapons. The nuclear attack on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 is a memorial to working together on a world without nuclear weapons, “even if we are very far from it,” said the Green politician at the start of her two-day inaugural visit to Japan. Even if the number of nuclear weapons worldwide has increased rather than decreased recently, it is important for the federal government to continue to campaign “for peace and a world without nuclear weapons”.

Nagasaki and the Japanese city of Hiroshima stand “like no other place for absolute annihilation and war and as a symbol for warning against the use of nuclear weapons,” said Baerbock, visibly shocked. The German government supports disarmament, “even if the world situation is very different at the moment,” stressed the Foreign Minister against the background of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

Baerbock referred to initiatives such as the nuclear weapons ban treaty, in which Germany is participating as an observer for the first time, and the non-proliferation treaty, in which nuclear disarmament steps are being actively worked on – “even if that is anything but easy in the current world situation”. Previously, Baerbock had visited the museum commemorating the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki and laid a wreath. She also met with a survivor of the atomic bomb blast.

In Nagasaki alone, around 70,000 people were killed by the direct effects of the atomic bomb and 75,000 others were injured. Three days earlier, the United States had already devastated the Japanese city of Hiroshima with a low-yield atomic bomb. Under the impact of the destruction, the Japanese Empire capitulated on August 15, 1945.

Baerbock is currently on a six-day trip to Asia. On Friday she attended the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia. She then visited the island state of Palau. Japan is the last stop. Baerbock stays here for two days.

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