(Brussels) “I am deeply moved by my visit at the Atomic Bomb Museum, the National Peace Memorial, and the conversations I have had”. The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, who is in Japan ahead of the G20 Osaka Summit on 28-29 June, visited the city of Nagasaki which was hit and destroyed by the atomic bomb on 5 August 1945. “Even such a short visit – President Tusk said – has made me forcefully aware of how tragic the lesson of Nagasaki is, and yet, how full of hope it is. Today, two days before the meeting of world leaders in Osaka, it should also be a lesson of responsibility for our common future”. “It is from here, from Nagasaki, that the words of warning and a simple appeal to all G20 participants should resonate: Wake up before it is too late. The global stage cannot become an arena where the stronger will dictate their conditions to the weaker without any reservations, where egoism will dominate over solidarity, and where nationalistic emotions will dominate over common sense”. Mr Tusk recalled “the threats of a nuclear blackmail ever-present in North Korea’s politics and Iran’s rhetoric, regional conflicts: in Syria, Ukraine or in Libya, instability in dozens of places on all continents, trade tensions among the greatest world superpowers, as well as not yet fully recognised consequences of threats coming from the climate crisis and next stages of technological revolution…”.

The President of the European Council noted: “We continue to pretend that we are in full control of the dynamics of events and changes, but this is an illusion. The awareness of those risks should guide discussions in Osaka”. And turning to the G20 protagonists, he said: “It is you, the leaders of world superpowers, who are responsible for the fact that the lesson of Nagasaki will not be in vain”.