The Special Representative was accompanied by Azerbaijani Ambassador to Japan Gursel Ismayilzade.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as well as officials from foreign countries also attended the event held in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Prior to the event, Special Representative Aydin Karimov met with Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui and informed him about the city of Shusha. The meeting also saw discussions on Shusha’s intention to join the “Mayors for Peace” movement.

On June 24, 1982, at the 2nd UN Special Session on Disarmament held at the UN Headquarters in New York, then Mayor Takeshi Araki of Hiroshima called for cities throughout the world to transcend national borders and join in solidarity to work together to press for nuclear abolition. In 1991, the organization was registered as a NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The movement brings together 8,271 member cities from 166 countries.