Prior to the 63rd Pugwash Conference in Hiroshima, the Secretary General and other Pugwash officials made several trips for events and to build ties and strengthen the Pugwash network.
Prof. Hallberg visited Beijing and Chongqing from 23-27 September to participate in the “Peace Conference in Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” at the invitation of the Chinese Peoples Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD). She held meetings with Mr Peng Qinghua (president of the CPAPD, also vice chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress), Ms. Yan Yinghua (Deputy Secretary General of CPAPD), Mr. Tao Tao (Deputy Secretary General of CPAPD), and Ms. Jia Peng (Director of European and African Affairs, CPAPD) to discuss possible collaborations and the importance of keeping dialogue channels for peace open.
Subsequently, the Secretary General and President, Dr. Hussain Al-Shahristani travelled to Moscow and St Petersburg from 4-8 October at the invitation of the Russian Pugwash Committee and the Russian Academy of Sciences. They visited the National Research Center (“Kurchatov Institute”), meeting its President Prof. Mikhail Kovalchuk, and toured its research and technological infrastructure and the “Kurchatov Institute’s” House of Scientists named after the Academician A. Alexandrov. In addition to meeting Pugwash colleagues, they held meetings with Hon. Sergey Ryabkov (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation), Prof. Gennady Krasnikov (President of the Russian Academy of Science) and Elena Eremenko (Advisor to the President of the NRC “Kurchatov Institute”), among other activities.
On 8 October the Secretary General then travelled to New York City for a special event to present the Nobel Laureate Declaration for the Prevention of Nuclear War, hosted by the Norwegian Permanent Mission to the UN. Following on from the July 2025 Assembly – which had produced and endorsed a list of actionable recommendations for preventing nuclear war aimed at leaders and policy makers around the world – this event challenged participants to think how states can collectively drive meaningful change at a time of unprecedented risk of nuclear conflagration. More than 70 people joined the discussion featuring Hans Christian Hveem Kjølseth (Deputy Director for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu (United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs), Prof. Daniel Holz (University of Chicago Departments of Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics), Alex Bell (President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) and Prof. Karen Hallberg (Pugwash).
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs 