Obama's Nuclear Proliferation Conference Results

Love|Peace The BBC assesses President Obama’s record on keeping his Prague speech promises made on America’s nuclear weapons agenda. For the mostpart, he’s on track but Europeans want him to go further.

With the ending of Obama’s two-day nuclear summit in Washington, the result is positive, says BBC, but the challenge will be in the implementation. A review conference will be held in 2012.

The European document released in concert with the summit calls, for example, for a “weapons of mass destruction free zone” in the Middle East and for “urgent and more radical initiatives from the nuclear weapons states” to follow up the new Start agreement. www.rusi.org/ELN/statement/ via BBC

The level of international cooperation called for by the final communique is unprecedented. Specifically the document ‘calls on the 47 nations to join together with a single-minded purpose: to prevent “non-state actors” — think al Qaeda or its allied groups — from obtaining nuclear technology or materials.’ via Reuters

The communique carries an implied level of collaboration between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Will Saudi Arabia really share information with Israel? Will Pakistan and India truly collaborate?

At the conference China reiterated its position that every country deserves the right to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn.com writes of their conference statement that Pakistan has acquired nuclear technology and will ‘provide nuclear fuel cycle services under IAEA safeguards, and to participate in any non-discriminatory nuclear fuel cycle assurance mechanism.’