18 September 2009
United States Planning U.N. Action on Nuclear Disarmament
Washington — The United States is anticipating agreement on a United Nations Security Council resolution concerning nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament after President Obama chairs a summit-level meeting at the council September 24.
Ambassador Susan Rice, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, told reporters September 18 that the final draft of the resolution is expected early in the week of September 21. She said it will be “meaningful [and] comprehensive,” and will “strengthen the normative as well as the substantive basis for action” on nuclear disarmament, ways of strengthening the global nuclear nonproliferation regime and how to secure loose nuclear materials.
In a speech in Prague April 5, President Obama announced a commitment to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” and Ambassador Rice said the disarmament aspect of the draft resolution is “significant” and reflects the president’s goal. (See “Obama Seeks World Free of Nuclear Weapons.”)
The United States also hopes the resolution “will give impetus” to the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty scheduled for 2010, as well as to the goal of securing nuclear materials ahead of a meeting President Obama will host on the subject in March 2010.
Obama’s leadership at what will be the fifth summit-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council is also the first time an American president has chaired the council, Rice said.
“Our goal in this regard is to underscore the global reach of proliferation threats, the broadly shared obligation to respond to these threats, and the positive steps that have been taken to reduce nuclear dangers and the essential role of the Security Council in addressing growing and pressing nuclear threats,” she said.
OBAMA TO SPEAK ON CLIMATE CHANGE, HOST SUMMIT OF AFRICAN LEADERS
Rice said President Obama will address U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s September 22 summit meeting on climate change. She described his speech as “an opportunity for the president to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to addressing the challenge of climate change and discuss solutions with a truly diverse global audience at the highest level.”
She said Secretary-General Ban sees the summit as a way of bringing the international community together “to try to galvanize progress” and “give political momentum and impetus” to talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, scheduled for December, where world leaders will try to reach a new agreement on climate change to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
“Clearly the road is rough ahead, and I don’t think anybody comes with any illusions,” Rice said. But in the New York meeting, “it is significant that you will have many heads of state, from the most vulnerable and fragile countries that are struggling to adapt to the effects of climate change, that need the technology and support to develop in spite of climate change, and you’ll have the most significant countries that contribute to climate change, all together and seriously addressing this problem.”
Each country will be acknowledging the reality of climate change, “not denying science and fact,” Rice said, and they will be “talking about ways quite concretely that they can take steps nationally and collectively to address this challenge.”
President Obama will underscore the importance the United States attaches to climate change and how seriously it views the challenge. He will also tell world leaders “this is very much a shared challenge, that everybody has to step up if we’re going to succeed in making concrete progress,” Rice said.
The ambassador also said the president will host an unprecedented lunch September 22 for African heads of state and government leaders to focus on how the United States and sub-Saharan African governments can work together to strengthen the continent’s economic and social development.
“The talk will focus primarily on three topics: job creation, especially for young people; creating a more conducive climate for trade and investment; and ways to mobilize African agriculture to create jobs and help feed the continent,” Rice said.
These are the most pressing issues in African countries, the ambassador said, and the lunch is “a very important opportunity to underscore that we share an interest in addressing those challenges.”
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