Nuclear summit in Washington most unarguable - Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in an interview with Russian national daily Izvestia described the nuclear security summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington as the "most unarguable."

The participants of the 47-nation summit discussed the issues of nuclear security during top-level talks, which took place in the U.S. capital on April 12-13.

Medvedev, who took part in the summit, said the summit was "unarguable" because its participants had a common view of the issues that had been discussed during the talks.

"The issues that united us were so obvious - nuclear terrorism, cooperation in countering countries that are trying to obtain [nuclear] technologies by illegal means - all these topics are equally understood. There was no polemic," Medvedev told Izvestia's correspondent Melor Sturua, described by the New York Times as "the most perceptive of the former Soviet pundits."

On Tuesday, the participants of the Washington summit adopted a communique, calling on the international community to make joint efforts to ensure nuclear security.

The communique said the nations "welcome and join President Obama's call to secure all vulnerable nuclear material in four years, as we work together to enhance nuclear security."

Medvedev stressed the risk of terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons.

"Now the risk of their [nuclear weapons] use is much higher, at least because we can force countries to behave properly. While it is possible neither to force nor to call on a terrorist to do this. We should destroy them [terrorists], and if they are captured - bring them to trial," the Russian president said.

"They are not just terrorists, there are those who are trying to obtain nuclear weapons, to create a 'dirty' nuclear bomb. That is why this is a real threat, and we should work to counter it," Medvedev added.

The nations participating in the Washington summit agreed to swap information to prevent illegal nuclear material trafficking, and supported "the implementation of strong nuclear security practices that will not infringe upon the rights of states to develop and utilize nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."

The 47 nations noted in their communique that highly-enriched uranium, as well as separated plutonium, requires special precautionary measures.

During the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed an agreement stipulating that Russia and the United States would each dispose of 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium.

Ukraine agreed in Washington to dispose of all its highly enriched uranium stockpiles by 2012. Obama met the decision by Ukraine, which was heavily hit by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, with enthusiasm.

SOURCE: RIA Novosti

DATE: April 15, 2010

Topics: Russia


Rambler's Top100