Remarks by H.E. Annalena Baerbock
President of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
on the occasion of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests
31 August 2026
[As Delivered]
Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Dr Robert Floyd,
Under-Secretary General Nakamitsu,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Frankly speaking, if you had asked me a few years ago why we commemorate international days such as this, I might have thought it is a bit outdated.
Yet, we are not living in 2015, but in 2026: a time of increased geopolitical tension, more armed conflict than ever, and unfortunately declining trust between States, when the risks of miscalculation and escalation demand sustained attention.
We also live in an era of rapid technological change, where the potential application of Artificial Intelligence to nuclear weapons systems raises serious questions about decision-making, human control, and the risk of miscalculation.
Of course, some may ask also: why should we be so concerned about testing, when more often than not it happens far away, in the middle of an ocean or a desert?
But history has shown us that the first step toward something far more serious, and far more sinister, is testing.
One need only look at the first nuclear test on 16 July 1945, in New Mexico.
That test ushered in a new era in which warfare, for the first time, carried the possibility of destruction on an existential scale.
A reality demonstrated with brutal clarity just weeks later, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And in an interconnected world such as ours, there is no truly ‘remote region’ immune from the effects or dangers of nuclear testing.
Across the world – from Lop Nur in China and the atolls of the Pacific, to Nevada, Algeria, Western Australia and the South Atlantic – atmospheric nuclear tests released an estimated explosive yield of approximately 438 megatons, equivalent to more than 29,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.
The human and environmental consequences have been immense.
At Semipalatinsk alone, between 1949 and 1962, hundreds of thousands of people living nearby were exposed to elevated levels of radiation.
For many survivors, these are not distant chapters of history, but lived experiences carried within families and across generations.
The effects do not end with the immediate explosion but linger in contaminated land and water; in agriculture, livestock and food chains; and in the lives of people and communities, particularly Indigenous communities, exposed to radiation.
We all know that commemorating an international day – or even remembering history – does not necessarily mean we are wiser, or better able to avert threats.
Yet, days such as this remain important opportunities to reflect on, especially at a time when we are witnessing not only – as said in the beginning – rising conflict and geopolitical tensions, but growing pressure on this institution and on the multilateral agreements it has helped to forge.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is a case in point.
Thirty years after it opened for signature, the Treaty has still not entered into force because the remaining required ratifications have not been secured.
For some, that is evidence of the limitations of multilateralism.
But days like today give us an opportunity to push back against that narrative — to ensure that we do not allow the story of this institution, or of this Treaty, to be rewritten solely in terms of what has not yet been achieved.
Because the Treaty also tells a remarkable story of what multilateralism has indeed achieved.
Before the Treaty opened for signature, more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions had been conducted worldwide.
Since 1996, that number has fallen to fewer than a dozen.
That is the true measure of its impact.
And it is a success we must build on.
By providing the International Monitoring System with the political and financial support needed to ensure reliable and timely data.
By strengthening the CTBTO and the IAEA, alongside bilateral and multilateral agreements.
And by renewing the political and financial commitments we made in the Pact for the Future.
Because even without its entry into force, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has proven its worth time and again.
Its success can be measured not only by what has happened over the past thirty years – but by what has not happened.
81 years ago, Hiroshima was the first nuclear disaster…
In building this house of diplomacy, our forefathers and mothers promised that Nagasaki, would be the last.
And for more than 80 years it has been.
So, it is upon us to build on this eight-decade long success for multilateralism, to ensure it lasts for another 80-years.
Thank you.