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Global Leaders Endorse Securing of All Nuclear Material by 2014

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Following two days of meetings in Washington, leaders from around the world agreed to take tangible and meaningful steps to secure the world’s nuclear materials.

President Obama, who initiated the global effort in a speech in Prague in April 2009, called the collective agreement “a testament to what is possible” in multilateral partnership.

Speaking at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit April 13, Obama said, “We have made real progress in building a safer world.”

All the participating countries now have “a shared understanding of the risk” that nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations and be used to produce a weapon, he said.

The summit participants also endorsed the president’s goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear material within four years, which Obama described as an ambitious goal, but one that can be achieved.

“The urgency of the threat and the catastrophic consequences of even a single act of nuclear terrorism demand an effort that is at once bold and pragmatic,” he said.

The participating countries also unanimously reaffirmed their responsibility to safeguard and secure all nuclear materials and facilities under their control and committed themselves to “a sustained, effective program of international cooperation on national security,” the president said.

“We call on other nations to join us,” Obama said.

For its part, the United States will strengthen its own nuclear facilities and invite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to review security measures. The president said the United States also has joined Canada’s appeal for the international community to commit $10 billion to strengthening nuclear security around the world.

The next Nuclear Security Summit will be held in Seoul in 2012, and the president thanked Korean President Lee Myung-bak for his country’s willingness to host the gathering.

According to the text of the summit communiqué released April 13, all participating nations and international organizations agreed to a series of cooperative measures aimed at prioritizing the protection of nuclear material within their countries and in transport, and acknowledged the need to build greater capacity for nuclear security around the world.

The communiqué reaffirmed support for pre-existing international agreements dealing with the safety and handling of nuclear material. Along with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which obliges countries to take effective measures against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the 1987 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) represents a legally binding instrument to protect nuclear material. It also establishes measures related to the prevention of outside seizure, the detection of material in transit and the punishment of nuclear material offenses.

The summit’s April 13 work plan calls on more countries to ratify the CPPNM’s 2005 amendment, which places legal requirements on signatories to protect their nuclear facilities and material and expands cooperation in recovering stolen material. The amendment, which the work plan describes as “vitally important for nuclear security,” must be ratified by two-thirds of the 142 CPPNM signatories before going into force.

In addition, the participating nations cited the 2005 International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which the work plan describes as a key part of preventing terrorists from getting weapons of mass destruction as it offers definitions, identifies potential targets and specifies rules for extraditing or prosecuting violators.

The work plan encourages all participants to make use of resources provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including the agency’s expertise on security capacity building, technical guidance and training programs.

In his remarks, President Obama said it had become clear during the summit discussions that “we do not need lots of new institutions and layers of bureaucracy.”

Instead, the international community needs to “strengthen the institutions and partnerships that we already have and make them more effective,” he said.