Japan’s prime minister warns of Russia’s ‘nuclear threat’

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned of Russia’s nuclear threat and reaffirmed a pledge to work to make the world free of nuclear weapons in a speech marking 78 years since the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on Sunday.

“As the only country to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war, Japan will press on tirelessly with its efforts to bring about ‘a world without nuclear weapons,’” Kishida said in remarks delivered in Hiroshima, in a tribute to the victims, their families and those still suffering aftereffects of the bomb.

He further warned that while Russia’s threat and other concerns “make that road all the more difficult,” it’s even more important to refocus efforts on the mission.

“The widening division within the international community over approaches to nuclear disarmament, the nuclear threat made by Russia and other concerns now make that road all the more difficult. But it is precisely because of these circumstances that it is imperative for us to reinvigorate international momentum once more towards the realization of a ‘world without nuclear weapons,’” Kishida said.

Kishida pointed to the recent Group of Seven Hiroshima Summit, during which world leaders heard from bomb survivors, and said the starting point for progress “is accurately understanding the tragic realities of the atomic bombings.”

Russia has recently escalated its nuclear position against Ukraine and the West, recently transferring nuclear tactical weapons to Belarus for the first time since 1962.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also recently said that if Ukraine is successful in its counteroffensive against Russia to take back its land, Russia would “have to” use nuclear weapons.

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