Ajankohtaista

Nobelin rauhanpalkinnolla palkitut järjestöt ICAN, IPPNW ja Nihon Hidankyo ovat äärimmäisen huolestuneita nykyisestä ydinaseisiin ja ydinaseriisuntaan liittyvästä ilmapiiristä. Ydinaseiden käytöstä puhutaan yhä enemmän, ja ydinaseriisunnan merkitys vaikuttaa heikkenevän. Järjestöt lähettivät Yhdysvaltain presidentille Donand Trumpille ja Venäjän presidentille Vladimir Putinille kirjeen, jonka julkaisemme alla.

Dear Presidents Donald J. Trump and Vladimir V. Putin,

We write to you as Nobel Peace Prize Laureates committed to the elimination of nuclear
weapons. At this moment of extreme nuclear danger, we call on you to take urgent steps to
de-escalate tensions and to engage in meaningful negotiations for nuclear disarmament.
The current climate surrounding nuclear weapons is the most volatile in decades.

Alarmingly, we are witnessing a resurgence of dangerous ideas which had been relegated to
Cold War history books: radical new calls for nuclear proliferation and the extension of nuclear
deterrence practices. The expansion of nuclear weapons capabilities is not a route to safety — it
only increases the risk these weapons will be used by accident or design. The only viable
security strategy is one that moves the world away from the brink of nuclear catastrophe and
prioritizes disarmament.

As the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) declared at
their recent meeting in New York:

“The long-standing disarmament and non-proliferation architecture is being eroded,
arms control agreements abandoned, and military postures hardened, further weakening
the existing global security architecture. A tense and increasingly polarized international
security environment, combined with a lack of trust and communication, exacerbates the
existing dangers of nuclear weapons use. Urgent action is needed to rebuild dialogue,
restore confidence and trust, recommit to nuclear disarmament, and prevent a return to
nuclear brinkmanship with catastrophic consequences for all humankind.”

Recent statements from your administrations have featured rhetoric about the desirability of a
world without nuclear weapons and the exorbitant cost of nuclear weapons, funds that could be
put to far better use. Talk about denuclearization must be matched by deeds. The world cannot
continue to walk the edge of catastrophe.

The hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and survivors of
nuclear weapons testing around the world, carry with them the painful memories of the horrors
that nuclear weapons inflict on human beings. They know, from firsthand experience, that no
one should ever have to endure the suffering that these weapons cause.

This June 21, a group of hibakusha will arrive in Reykjavík aboard the Peace Boat where they
will visit Höfði House – the site of one of the most promising moments in the history of nuclear
disarmament. The 1986 summit between Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavík paved
the way for significant arms reductions. They very nearly achieved an historic breakthrough for
the elimination of all nuclear weapons. That moment proved that political will can overcome
seemingly insurmountable divides. You have an opportunity now to recapture that spirit, and to
go further and achieve what Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev could not: the total elimination
of nuclear weapons.

As Nobel Peace laureates, we urge you to meet with one another to reach an agreement on
total nuclear disarmament.

As the Chair of The Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes said at the Nobel
Peace Prize Ceremony in December 2024:

“Disarmament requires courageous and visionary political leaders. None of the nine
countries that possess nuclear weapons – the United States, Russia, China, France, the
United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – appear interested in nuclear
disarmament and arms control at present.”

This is the moment to show the world the courageous and visionary leadership that is needed.
Nuclear weapons are not an inevitable force of nature that must be endured. They were built by
human hands, and they can be dismantled by human hands. All that’s required is political will. It
is within your power, as Presidents of the most powerful nuclear countries in the world, to end
nuclear weapons before they end us. But, as the Doomsday Clock shows, time is running out.
Meet. Talk. Eliminate nuclear weapons for good.

With utmost urgency and hope,

Terumi Tanaka, Shigemitsu Tanaka, and Toshiyuki Mimaki, on behalf of Nihon Hidankyo, Nobel
Peace Prize 2024

Melissa Parke and Akira Kawasaki, on behalf of ICAN, Nobel Peace Prize 2017

Michael Christ, on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Nobel
Peace Prize 1985
Letter to Trump Putin from Nobel Peace Laureates