Mayors for Peace, a worldwide organization of city leaders, started a three-day general conference in Nagasaki on Friday, the day before the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the southwestern Japan city.
"We would like to learn from each city's efforts for peace and find possibilities for new collaborations," Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said at the 11th general conference.
The organization, which promotes efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, had a total of 8,509 member cities in 166 countries and regions as of the beginning of this month.
Its quadrennial general conference is alternately hosted by Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the other atomic-bombed city, located in western Japan.
At the opening ceremony on Friday, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui said, "We would like to appeal to expand global solidarity and chains of actions toward a peaceful world."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent a video message to the conference, saying: "Nuclear weapons have no place in our world. They offer no security, only the illusion of safety and the certainty of devastation."
The conference will discuss actions to be taken by 2029 and adopt a resolution on the abolition of nuclear weapons on the closing day.
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