80 after Hiroshima the EU pursues nuclear disarmament, warns of danger posed by Iran

Brussels – 6 August 1945 – 6 August 2025. The European Union commemorates the bombing of Hiroshima and the dropping of the first of the two atomic bombs on Japan that changed, in a negative way, the course of human history. Because, recalls the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, “still stands as a chilling testament to the power and consequences of nuclear weapons.” Precisely for this reason, the 80th anniversary of the event becomes an occasion to urge against “the opaque expansion of nuclear arsenals and new actors seeking to acquire nuclear capabilities.” 

On the part of Kallas, there is no explicit reference to anyone, but the allusion hidden between the lines of the note released conceals a reference to Iran, a country that is allegedly trying to obtain nuclear weapons and has been bombed by Israel for this and accused by the EU itself of being a source of regional instability. The same EU diplomacy tries to keep alive what remains of the international agreement that would commit the Islamic Republic not to equip itself with nuclear power, reflecting fears towards the ayatollahs’ regime. 

But there is also North Korean nuclear power in the background. For years, Pyongyang has been working on developing nuclear military arsenals, complete with tests condemned by the G7 and sanctions by the EU itself. 

“In the face of these challenges,” Kallas continued, “the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons remains the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime and the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.”  

So the protagonists change, but the line remains the same: a halt must be put to the proliferation of atomic bombs. A warning that also came from the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa: “Today we honour the memory of the victims and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to peace, disarmament, and a world free of nuclear weapons.” Eighty years after the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, he added, “the world must never forget the horror unleashed by nuclear weapons. Humanity still bears the scars today.”