The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki has said his city must be the last to suffer the ravages of a nuclear attack, in a speech where he repeated his call for the eradication of nuclear weapons.

Taue Tomihisa on Friday addressed a review conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons at the UN headquarters in New York. He was speaking as a representative of the Mayors for Peace, a group of municipalities lobbying for the abolition of the weapons.

Taue said the survivors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as hibakusha, continue to talk about their experiences in an effort to remind the world of the horrors of nuclear conflict.

Referring to Russia's threat to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Taue noted that all of the efforts of the hibakusha would be rendered worthless if a nuclear power acted in such a way.

He pointed out that the only way for mankind to avoid the risk of a nuclear conflict is to eliminate the weapons entirely, and he called on nuclear powers and other countries to work toward this goal.

The mayor expressed hope that the review conference will present a concrete path toward disarmament and non-proliferation.