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PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. It is my privilege to welcome you
to Washington and to formally convene our fourth Nuclear Security Summit. I
convened our first summit – six years ago, in this same room – because the
danger of a terrorist group obtaining and using a nuclear weapon is one of the
greatest threats to global security.
Our nations committed ourselves to action – concrete, tangible steps to
secure the world’s vulnerable nuclear materials. And we continued our work at
our summits in Seoul and The Hague. I want to, again, thank our friends from the
Republic of Korea and the Netherlands for their leadership on this critical
issue.
Back at our first summit, I quoted Albert Einstein. At the dawn on the
nuclear age, he said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything.”
And he added, “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive.”
Over the past six years, when it comes to nuclear security, we’ve embraced a new
type of thinking – and a new type of action. This is a perfect example of a 21st
century security challenge that no one nation can solve alone. It requires
coalitions and sustained coordination across borders and institutions. And the
good news is we’ve made significant progress.
We’ve made nuclear security a priority at the highest levels. And I want to
thank all my fellow leaders – from more than 50 nations and key international
organizations – for your commitment to this work and being here today. Some of
you were here for our very first summit; many of you have since taken office and
joined this work. But it’s a reminder that the task of protecting our citizens
transcends political ideologies, parties and administrations.
To date, our nations have made some 260 specific commitments to improve
nuclear security – and so far, three-quarters of these steps have been
implemented. More than a dozen nations have removed all their highly enriched
uranium and plutonium. Countries have removed or disposed of several tons of
this deadly material. Nations have improved their nuclear security, including
stronger regulations and more physical security of nuclear facilities, and more
nations are cooperating to prevent nuclear smuggling.
Leading up to this summit, nations have fulfilled additional commitments.
Argentina, Switzerland, Uzbekistan all successfully eliminated all their highly
enriched uranium from their countries. China recently opened its new center for
promoting nuclear security and training, and I’m pleased that the United States
and China are cooperating on nuclear security. And Japan is working to complete
the removal of more than half a ton of highly enriched uranium and plutonium,
which is the largest project in history to remove nuclear material from a
country.
I’m also pleased to announce that in recent days, after many years of work,
102 nations have now ratified a key treaty – the Convention on the Physical
Protection of Nuclear Material. As a result, we expect that the treaty will
enter into force in the coming weeks – giving us more tools that we need to work
together in the event of theft of nuclear material or an attack on a nuclear
facility. Several of the nations here made the extra effort in recent weeks to
complete this process in time for this summit. And I want to thank you very much
for helping us get over the line.
Once again, I’m making it clear that the United States will continue to do
our part. Today we’re releasing a detailed description of the security measures
our military takes to protect nuclear material so that other nations can improve
their security and transparency as well.
For the first time in a decade, we’re providing a public inventory of our
stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, which could be used for nuclear weapons,
and that inventory is one that we have reduced considerably. When it comes to
our nuclear-powered ships and submarines, we’re exploring ways to further reduce
our holdings of highly enriched uranium.
In short, everybody has been participating, and by working together, our
nations have made it harder for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear
material. We have measurably reduced the risk. But as we discussed at last
night’s dinner, the threat of nuclear terrorism persists and continues to
evolve. Fortunately, because of our coordinated efforts, no terrorist group has
succeeded thus far in obtaining a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb made of
radioactive materials. But we know that al Qaida has long sought nuclear
materials. Individuals involved in the attacks in Paris and Brussels videotaped
a senior manager who works at a Belgian nuclear facility. ISIL has already used
chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Syria and Iraq. There is no doubt
that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material
they most certainly would use it to kill as many innocent people as
possible.
And that’s why our work here remains so critical. The single most effective
defense against nuclear terrorism is fully securing this material so it doesn’t
fall into the wrong hands in the first place.
This is difficult. At hundreds of military and civilian facilities around
the world, there’s still roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material, and not all of
this is properly secured. And just the smallest amount of plutonium – about the
size of an apple – could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of innocent
people. It would be a humanitarian, political, economic, and environmental
catastrophe with global ramifications for decades. It would change our
world.
So we cannot be complacent. We have to build on our progress. We have to
commit to better security at nuclear facilities; to removing or disposing of
more dangerous material; to bringing more nations into treaties and partnerships
that prevent proliferation and smuggling; and to making sure that we have the
architecture in place to sustain our momentum in the years ahead.
With so many members of the global coalition against ISIL here today, this
will also be an opportunity to make sure that we’re doing everything in our
power to keep a terrorist group like ISIL from ever getting its hands not just
on a nuclear weapon, but any weapon of mass destruction.
So I am very appreciative of the excellent work that’s been done and the
excellent conversation we had last night. With that, what I’d like to do is to
invite Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands to review some of the
specific progress that we’ve made since our last summit. |
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发表于 2016-7-12 21:29:57