Obama says nuke summit made US, world more secure

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Copy Link

  Link Copied

WASHINGTON (AP) — In full accord on a global threat, world leaders endorsed President Barack Obama’s call for securing all nuclear materials from terrorists within four years at a 47-nation summit on Tuesday. They offered few specifics for achieving that goal, but Obama declared the world would be more secure as a result.

Obama had called the summit to focus world attention on keeping dangerous materials out of terrorist hands, a peril he termed the greatest threat facing all nations and a “cruel irony of history” after mankind had survived the Cold War and decades of fear stoked by a U.S.-Soviet arms race.

A terrorist group in possession of plutonium no bigger than an apple could detonate a device capable of inflicting hundreds of thousands of casualties, he said.

“Terrorist networks such as al-Qaida have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon, and if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it,” he told the opening session, which convened under tight security at the Washington Convention Center. “Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life and striking a major blow to global peace and stability.”

WATCH ANDREA MITCHELL’S COVERAGE OF OBAMA’S NUCLEAR SUMMIT:
[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”36456082″ id=”msnbc3606a5″]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The summit countries said they would cooperate more deeply with the United Nations and its watchdog arm, the International Atomic Energy Agency. They also said they would share information on nuclear detection and ways to prevent nuclear trafficking.

While the summit focused on the threat from terrorists, attention was given to Iran, North Korea and other nations who are seeking or have succeeded in obtaining or developing nuclear weapons.

In a news conference at the conference conclusion, Obama said he was confident China would join other nations in pressing for tough new sanctions on Iran for continuing to defy the international community in seeking such weapons.

“Words have to mean something. There have to be some consequences,” Obama said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Obama on Monday, then on Tuesday gave a speech to the group calling for “effective” measures to safeguard nuclear weapons and materials. But he stopped short of mentioning Iran’s program.

Iran, which was not invited to the conference, denies it intends to build an atomic bomb, and despite widespread concern about its intentions, Obama is having difficulty getting agreement on a new set of U.N. sanctions against the country. He said Tuesday that Hu had assured him that China would participate in drafting sessions at the United Nations on strong sanctions.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the U.N. should impose fresh sanctions against Iran no later than May.

“It seems reasonable to me to set a timetable to issue U.N. sanctions in April … or no later than May,” Sarkozy said. “I think there is a growing understanding that the current situation (with Iran) cannot continue.”

The summiteers announced that a follow-up nuclear security conference will be held in South Korea in 2012.

President Lee Myung-bak told reporters that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will not get an invitation until the North gives up its efforts to build a nuclear arsenal.

North Korea’s efforts — and its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that sets the rules of the road for nuclear technology — kept it out of the Washington summit. Syria, which is suspected by the U.S. and others of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions, also was not invited.

Asked about steps that have been taken against North Korea, Obama conceded that “sanctions are not a magic wand.” Still, he said he hoped the pressure could lead North Korea’s leaders to multinational talks.

In a joint work plan spelling out specific actions to be taken, the summit countries said they would “work together to achieve universality” of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, but there was no mention of specific additional countries formally ratifying the convention. They also underscored the importance of a 2005 amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.

The United States declared that the Obama administration had submitted to Congress legislation to bring U.S. laws into line with the two treaties.

The U.S. also committed to requesting an “advisory mission” from the International Atomic Energy Agency to review physical security at a nuclear facility of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

As an example of the collective action called for by Obama, officials of the U.S., Canada and Mexico announced an agreement to work together, along with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency, to convert the fuel in Mexico’s research reactor from highly enriched uranium to a lower-enriched fuel that would be much harder to use in the manufacturing of a nuclear weapon.

Mexico further agreed that once the fuel is converted, it will get rid of all its highly enriched uranium. That follows Ukraine’s announcement on Monday that it, too, will ship all its highly enriched uranium to protected storage outside its borders — possibly to Russia or the U.S.

U.S. officials touted their completion of a long-delayed agreement with Russia on disposing of tons of plutonium from Cold War-era weapons. Each country will complete and operate facilities to dispose of at least 34 tons of plutonium by using it as fuel in civilian power reactors to produce electricity, although it will not start until 2018; monitors and inspectors will ensure against cheating.

The State Department said the combined 68 tons of U.S. and Russian plutonium represents enough for about 17,000 nuclear weapons. The deal was signed Tuesday at the summit by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, in his remarks to the conference, stressed the importance of protecting nuclear-related information.

“We must keep the science as well as the substance of nuclear materials out of terrorist hands,” he said, according to a transcript provided by British officials.