G7 goal of nuclear-free world increasingly challenged

The road to a nuclear-free world is becoming rockier a year after leaders from the Group of Seven adopted a landmark document on nuclear disarmament.

On May 19, 2023, the first day of the three-day G7 summit in the city of Hiroshima, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union adopted the Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament, which reaffirmed their “commitment to the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted the summit, continues calling for the realization of the vision. But momentum for nuclear disarmament has not increased, partly because Russia has threatened to use nuclear weapons in its military aggression against Ukraine.