The United Nations adopted a historic resolution last month calling on member states to start negotiations in March on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Despite the multitude of problems confronting the world today, the goal of abolishing nuclear arms should not be sidelined. All countries, in particular Japan — the sole nation in history to have suffered a nuclear attack — need to take the resolution seriously and enter the talks to lay the foundation for building a world without nuclear arms.

As he assumed the office of U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and U.N. refugee agency chief, issued an "Appeal for Peace," urging citizens, governments and leaders of the world to join him in making one shared New Year's resolution: "Let us resolve to put peace first." His call was most fitting in view of continuing emergencies such as the civil war in Syria, which has caused humanitarian crises and sowed the seeds of terrorism, and fears of possible genocide in South Sudan, where U.N. peacekeeping forces, including Self-Defense Forces troops, are deployed.

Guterres' statement also carries importance when placed against the rising tendency among leaders to put their countries' interests first, as symbolized by the campaign vows of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Particularly worrisome is Trump's remarks on issues related to nuclear weapons. Last month, he said in a Twitter message, "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." The next day — the day the U.N. resolution for talks on nuclear arms ban was adopted — he followed up by saying: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all." His statements represent an antithesis to what the U.S. and Russia, which together own much of the world's nuclear arms stockpile, have done for more than three decades — to cut back on their arsenals.