Obama's Hiroshima visit can advance nuclear disarmament: UN
The United Nations hopes that US President Barack Obama's visit to Hiroshima
United States, May 10, 2016 - The United Nations hopes that US President Barack Obama s visit to Hiroshima will highlight the need to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all, a spokesman said Tuesday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "very much welcomes" Obama s decision to visit the atomic bomb-struck Japanese city on May 27, Stephane Dujarric said.
"For the secretary-general, one of the enduring lessons of Hiroshima is the need to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all," he added.
"We would hope that the visit is again a global message on the need for nuclear disarmament, which is something that the secretary-general is calling for."
Obama will be the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, 71 years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city, killing around 140,000 people.
The White House described the trip as an effort to highlight the US "commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
At a major conference held at the United Nations last year, member states failed to agree on the next steps needed to implement a major disarmament accord, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The United States, backed by Britain and Canada, blocked a document on the way forward over provisions that called for Israel to agree to a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.
