{"id":289649,"date":"2025-09-26T10:41:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/80\/?p=289649"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:41:57","slug":"pga-remarks-at-the-high-level-meeting-on-international-day-for-the-total-elimination-of-nuclear-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/80\/2025\/09\/26\/pga-remarks-at-the-high-level-meeting-on-international-day-for-the-total-elimination-of-nuclear-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Remarks at the High-level Meeting on International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
\nH.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock
\nHigh-level Meeting on International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday 26 September 2025, 10 am<\/strong><\/p>\n

[As Delivered] <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Excellencies,<\/p>\n

We did not create the United Nations 80 years ago because peace was the neutral state of humanity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the moment we learned to fashion spears and blades, humanity turned tools into weapons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As those weapons grew more sophisticated, our wars grew more brutal\u2014culminating into the total destruction of the last century.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in two blinding instants, humanity confronted a horrifying truth: we had acquired the ability to erase civilisation itself.<\/p>\n

That is why we need, this is why we build, this Organization. Our United Nations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not only for the aspirations of multilateralism and cooperation, but as a guardrail against our most destructive instincts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A north star to guide us away from the hells of our own making.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet 80 years later the scourge of war has not been eradicated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite all treaties, since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more states have acquired nuclear weapons, while those that already possess them have expanded their arsenals.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In theory, the world accepts that a nuclear war must never be fought and can never be won.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet that has not stopped some from building ever larger arsenals\u2014or even from repeatedly coming to the brink of using them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the Cold War, false alarms, misread signals, and reckless standoffs nearly unleashed catastrophe, most famously during the Cuban Missile Crisis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now the danger is more complex.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What if terrorists acquire these weapons?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What if artificial intelligence accelerates decision-making, leaving no room for human restraint?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The risk of miscalculation today may be greater than at any point since 1945.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excellencies,<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Managing these risks, especially in areas of disagreement, is precisely one of the tasks for which the United Nations was created.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And as I said in my opening speech, it\u2019s not because we do not know our compass.<\/p>\n

It is not because our compass does not work.<\/p>\n

We do have effective frameworks for reducing nuclear dangers, shaped by this organization.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n