(Update) Nagasaki Mayor Says Nuke Abolition Cannot Be Delayed

   Nagasaki, Aug. 9 (Jiji Press)--Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, in this year's Nagasaki Peace Declaration on Saturday, stressed that postponing nuclear abolition efforts cannot be tolerated.
   Reading out the declaration at a memorial ceremony on the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city, Suzuki urged leaders of all countries to "show a specific course of action for achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons" at next year's Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, adding, "Procrastination can no longer be tolerated."
   The mayor called for an immediate ceasefire in armed conflicts around the world. He warned that an "existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth" due to the danger of nuclear war.
   The ceremony, held at a park near the epicenter of the Aug. 9, 1945, nuclear attack in the city of Nagasaki, was attended by representatives from 94 countries and regions and the European Union. Taiwan attended the ceremony for the first time. Russia, Belarus and Israel, which were not invited by the city last year, also participated.
   "We must never allow even a single person among the people of the world and the children to be born in the future to go through the death and suffering caused by nuclear weapons that hibakusha (atomic bomb victims and survivors) have suffered," Suzuki said in the declaration.

(2025/08/09-15:14)

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