US Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington and Moscow are working to reduce the number of their existing nuclear weapons stockpile during the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing in Japan.
“The United States and other countries are working to move — particularly Russia and the United States with our agreement — to reduce the number of existing nuclear weapons," he said.
During at a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Malaysia Thursday, Kerry also defended the Iran nuclear accord once again, saying it demonstrates the importance to prevent more wars.
The top US diplomat said the Hiroshima anniversary is a very powerful reminder of the impact of war.
"Needless to say, it is a very, very powerful reminder of not just the impact of war lasting today on people and countries, but it also underscores the importance of the agreement we have reached with Iran," he told reporters.
During the final stage of the World War II, the US dropped the world's first deployed atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, leaving over 200,000 people dead almost immediately.
Despite Kerry’s remarks about the interest to reduce nuclear weapons, analysts say the modernization programs underway in the nuclear weapon-possessing states suggest that none of them will give up their nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future.
Ninety percent of the world’s nuclear weapons belong to Russia and the US with each country possessing 7,500 and 7,260 warheads, respectively.
In June, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) announced that the United States and Russia press ahead with plans to upgrade their nuclear stockpiles despite international calls for disarmament.