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Whom Should the White House Invite to Its 2010 Nuclear Non-proliferation Summit?
July 09, 2009 12:48 PM
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Karen Travers report:
L'AQUILA, ITALY -- As President Obama pledged earlier this year during a speech in Prague, the White House took the opportunity of the G-8 summit to announce that he will host a global nuclear security summit in Washington, DC, in March 2010 to discuss and develop a common nonproliferation agenda.
The summit announcement comes just days after President Obama and Russian President Dimitry Medvedev announced a joint framework to come to an agreement to limit their nations' nuclear weapons and as G8 leaders wrestled with how to respond to Iran and North Korea’s nuclear advances.
Obama will send out personal letters of invitation to world leaders and the White House expects 25-30 nations to attend.
A key question, however: whose leaders should the White House invite? Which countries?
Nuclear powers? Would that include Israel, whose nuclear weapons program is a diplomatic no-no for the US to acknowledge?
What about Iran and North Korea, whom the president says he wants to engage diplomatically?
Countries, such as the former USSR states, that have fissile material?
Would countries that wield influence, but are not members per se of the "Nuclear Club" -- such as Japan -- be on the invite list?
What about nations such as France, Germany, and others who have participated in NATO nuclear weapons sharing but are not Nuclear Club members either?
The White House said these issues are still being debated. But without question, controversies lie ahead.
Mark Lippert, chief of staff for the president’s National Security Council, said President Obama wants to address global nuclear security with world leaders before an act of nuclear terrorism forces the issue.
The President "believes nuclear terrorism is the most immediate and extreme threat to global security, and he feels the need to help lead an international effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years, break up black markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial tools to disrupt the illicit trade in these materials,” Lippert told reporters last night at the G8 summit in L’Aquila.
In a speech in Prague in April, Obama outlined his goal of a nuclear-free world and pledged to host the global summit within a year.
"Today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," the president said in April. "This goal will not be reached quickly – perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change."
The goal of the March 2010 summit is to “raise the profile, discuss steps to move forward, and hope to end with some sort of communiqué pledging efforts to get to higher standards on these issues and expand the peaceful nuclear energy worldwide,” Lippert said.
The concrete objectives the White House hopes from the summit are a strategy of cooperation to secure vulnerable materials and combat nuclear smuggling and a communiqué on ways to bring all participating nations to a common standard on nuclear security.
The White House said the goal was to build on the progress of bilateral efforts the United States has made with allies.
“We wanted to lay down an important multilateral piece on top of this to sort of tie it all together and make sure everybody was coordinated on the same page,” said Lippert.
-- Jake Tapper and Karen Travers
July 9, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (9)
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MeMaw: you raise a good point, this is part of the reason why President Obama is pursuing this issue. We cannot pressure other nations to abandon nuclear ambitions when we still hold nukes, or weapons create an imperative for them to have weapons as well.
I think Iran and North Korea should both be invited, while the talks last week were geared toward reducing domestic stockpiles in Russia and the U.S. there are more important goals. We need to stop Russia from sending nuclear technology to these two nations and negotiate the terms of civilian nuclear programs.
Posted by: Rosa | Jul 10, 2009 1:00:45 PM
I think Obama should keep campaign touring. He sure not helping here.
Posted by: BannedOnceAgain2 | Jul 9, 2009 8:35:06 PM
Better start with all those countries that will be working on a nuke like mad because of (or) will get one from Iran or North Korea...
South Korea
Japan
Indonesia
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Turkey
Egypt...
and the list is sure to grow substantially by 20010.
Posted by: dbruce | Jul 9, 2009 7:06:02 PM
uhhh...Should ask Iran and North Korea since he is doing nothing to stop them to develop them...I know the answer he will received...4 letter word...
Posted by: Frank | Jul 9, 2009 4:02:19 PM
The invite list depends on his objectives. If he wants to prepare for a terrorist use of a nuclear weapon, I would guess he should invite everyone who has a role to play in preventing proliferation. This includes Russia, and Israel, but certainly not North Korea or Iran. Pakistan and India are a bit tougher to call, but I'd include them.
============
Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran are the countries most likely to sell/have sold nuclear technology to terrorists.
Posted by: MayBee | Jul 9, 2009 3:08:10 PM
How about inviting the United Arab Emirates, just in case?
The U.A.E. or any of the Middle Eastern countries participating in the Middle East Nuclear Energy Summit 2009 being held this fall in Dubai.
They will be discussing lessons learned from the U.S.A., France, India and Korea (no mention of North or South).
Posted by: MeMaw | Jul 9, 2009 3:01:37 PM
the call on Israel is difficult for the US to acknowledge. if we do not acknowledge that Israel has these weapons we appear either stupid or disingenuous or both. if we acknowledge that they do have nuclear weapons what right to we (or the international community)have in demanding Iran not to develop them? our expectations of Iran (along with associated sanctions) make us inconsistent hypocrites. what nation, other than South Africa (after democratic elections and the end of apartheid rule), has voluntarily given up and dismantled its nuclear programme?
Posted by: Paul Wall | Jul 9, 2009 2:57:51 PM
The invite list depends on his objectives. If he wants to prepare for a terrorist use of a nuclear weapon, I would guess he should invite everyone who has a role to play in preventing proliferation. This includes Russia, and Israel, but certainly not North Korea or Iran. Pakistan and India are a bit tougher to call, but I'd include them.
If he is looking to add pressure on rouge regimes, then that would add North Korea and Iran.
Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 9, 2009 2:29:20 PM
Uhh, France is one of the five permanent members of the U.S. Security Council because they have nuclear arms. How does that not make them part of the nuclear club? You are right on Germany, but wrong on France.
Posted by: Jon from Chicago | Jul 9, 2009 1:34:02 PM
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