Photo/Illutration Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki speaks at a news conference in the prefectural government office on April 12. (Kazutaka Toda)

HIROSHIMA--Experts are raising alarm that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is hindering efforts for global nuclear disarmament and warning that the world is headed down the wrong path on curtailing arms buildup.

In a new report on the state of nuclear security around the world, an expert said Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons this year has intensified calls for maintaining and strengthening nuclear deterrence, and given a new sense of urgency to those seeking swift abolition of nuclear weapons.

“(The threat) made it much harder to achieve nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation,” stated Hiroshima Report 2022.

The Hiroshima prefectural government and other organizations on April 14 released the annual report, in which foreign and domestic experts grade each country’s efforts over the past year toward abolishing nuclear weapons.

Since the Ukraine conflict began in February this year, it was not included in the main report, but a supplementary report delved into how the war is affecting the push for disarmament.

Hirofumi Tosaki, the director of the Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology of the Japan Institute of International Affairs and chief researcher of the Hiroshima Report, wrote a column in the separate report on Ukraine discussing the crisis.

He warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its threat to use nuclear weapons that was meant to intimidate the world could now spur states that do not possess nuclear arms into seriously considering acquiring nuclear weapons.

He said politicians from Japan, South Korea and Poland are now calling for “nuclear sharing” agreements, in which they would ask the United States to deploy nuclear weapons in their countries and jointly operate them.

The relationship between the United States and Russia, which both own more than 90 percent of the nuclear weapons around the world, has deteriorated significantly, he said.

That has “made it difficult for them to make progress toward managing nuclear disarmament for the time being,” Tosaki said in his report.

The main report stated that “nuclear-armed nations are relying more on nuclear deterrence.”

Britain received a much lower score in this latest report because it had announced that it would raise the maximum number of nuclear warheads it can stockpile.

China also obtained lower points because it is believed to be developing a new delivery system where nuclear warheads can be mounted.

Related News