IAEA Director General Calls for Diplomacy and Dialogue to Reduce Nuclear Tensions at Nobel Peace Prize Forum

"This year's Nobel Peace Prize has lit up our path ahead by reminding us of the past, and of the consequences of ignoring the perils of nuclear weapons use," said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in his keynote address at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum 2024 in Oslo.

Mr Grossi was speaking one day after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyō, the Japanese organization of hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

In a time of increasing fragmentation and conflict, the world has come to a crucial crossroads as it navigates the perils of the atomic age, Mr Grossi warned. Growing numbers of nuclear warheads, increased talk of nuclear weapons use, and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are all intensifying nuclear risks.

In his speech, Mr Grossi recalled a formative encounter with a hibakusha woman when he visited Hiroshima as a young diplomat decades ago. "I have carried to every meeting, to every negotiation, and to every posting, the memory of this woman's silent testimony," he said. "The look in her eyes has stayed with me ever since, like a powerful reminder, a secret mandate, to work so that her suffering is never repeated."