Lawmakers: “Throughout the years, U.S. Presidents have spoken about the need to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, prevent arms racing, and avoid the ultimate catastrophe: nuclear war. Those calls have also been echoed by other world leaders.”
Thursday, May 4, 2023
Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, along with Massachusetts’s U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey and Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Don Beyer (D-VA-08), sent a letter to President Biden urging the President to use the upcoming May summit of Group of Seven (G7) leaders in Hiroshima to propose specific steps to advance a new global nuclear disarmament dialogue.
Merkley, Markey, Garamendi, and Beyer serve as the co-chairs of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group. Merkley is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Garamendi is a member of the House Committee on Armed Services.
“We commend Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for intentionally choosing the city of Hiroshima, the first target of a nuclear weapon in war, as the summit venue,” wrote the lawmakers. “We further welcome the meeting between the G7 leaders and the hibakusha – the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to truly grapple with the long-lasting horrors of the use of nuclear weapons.”
In their letter, the lawmakers also note the critical importance of the G7 leaders visiting the exhibits in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to see for themselves how nuclear bomb survivors suffered as a consequence of the use of these weapons.
“As Prime Minister Kishida said, the summit presents a unique opportunity ‘to deepen discussions so that we can release a strong message toward realizing a world free of nuclear weapons’ and to ‘demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the threat or use of nuclear weapons,’” the letter continues.
The lawmaker’s letter urges the President to center the world’s attention on the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament and encourages President Biden to include the following elements in his potential address:
- acknowledging the tremendous, long-lasting human suffering that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings inflicted on the hibakusha;
- reiterating that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, as well as emphasizing that, as the G-20 agreed in November 2022, nuclear weapons use and threat of use are “inadmissible;”
- reaffirming the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons;
- announcing and committing to concrete steps to prevent a new arms race, guard against nuclear weapons use, and advance nuclear disarmament; and
- reiterating his invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold serious talks aimed at restoring full implementation of New START and negotiating a new nuclear arms control framework to follow New START.
“At this time of growing nuclear dangers, we hope that during your visit to Hiroshima, you directly address how the United States is willing and ready to work with other states, including those with nuclear weapons and those that have forsworn them, to ensure that no country or city suffers the horrors of nuclear war ever again,” the lawmakers conclude.
Full text of the letter can be found here and follows below:
Dear President Biden,
We write to you today to urge you to use the upcoming May summit of Group of Seven (G7) leaders in Hiroshima to propose specific steps your administration is prepared to take to advance a new global nuclear disarmament dialogue.
We commend Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for intentionally choosing the city of Hiroshima, the first target of a nuclear weapon in war, as the summit venue. We further welcome the meeting between the G7 leaders and the hibakusha – the people affected by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – to truly grapple with the long-lasting horrors of the use of nuclear weapons.
It is vitally important that the G7 leaders give the survivors a chance to tell their stories, as well as visit the exhibits in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum so they can see for themselves how the survivors suffered as a consequence of the use of these weapons.
As Prime Minister Kishida said, the summit presents a unique opportunity “to deepen discussions so that we can release a strong message toward realizing a world free of nuclear weapons” and to “demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the threat or use of nuclear weapons.”
Against this backdrop, we urge you to use the G7 summit to center the world’s attention on the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament and to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to nonproliferation efforts.
In your potential address, we encourage you to:
- acknowledge the tremendous, long-lasting human suffering that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings inflicted on the hibakusha,
- reiterate that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, as well as emphasize that, as the G-20 agreed in November 2022, nuclear weapons use and threat of use are “inadmissible,”
- reaffirm the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons,
- announce and commit to concrete steps to prevent a new arms race, guard against nuclear weapons use, and advance nuclear disarmament, and
- reiterate your invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold serious talks aimed at restoring full implementation of New START and negotiating a new nuclear arms control framework to follow New START.
Throughout the years, U.S. Presidents, including Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, have spoken about the need to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, prevent arms racing, and avoid the ultimate catastrophe: nuclear war. Those calls have also been echoed by other world leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Pope Francis, and countless nuclear activists worldwide.
At this time of growing nuclear dangers, we hope that during your visit to Hiroshima, you directly address how the United States is willing and ready to work with other states, including those with nuclear weapons and those that have forsworn them, to ensure that no country or city suffers the horrors of nuclear war ever again.
Sincerely,
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