Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will be one of the four keynote speakers at a two-day Nuclear Security Summit beginning here on Monday (today) with more than 50 heads of state and representatives of international organisations participating under the shared goal of strengthening international cooperation to combat the challenges of nuclear terrorism.
The summit represents the joint effort of the global community to demonstrate practical measures to bolster nuclear security. The focus of discussion will be on how to translate the agreements reached at the 2010 Washington Nuclear Summit into concrete actions. Strengthening of nuclear security and safety, a major concern for the world powers following the Fukushima accident in Japan last year, will also be discussed at this forum.
Gilani, who arrived here Sunday night on a three-day visit along with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Sherry Rehman, will present at the inaugural dinner the review of the “progress made by Pakistan since the Washington Summit”, while unveiling the steps conceived by Pakistan to tackle nuclear terrorism. “He will make a strong case for non-discriminatory access to nuclear technology for peaceful uses, including nuclear power generation, to meet our growing energy,” said a Pakistani diplomat.
Gilani will also reiterate Islamabad’s stated position about the need for strengthening the role of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and promoting synergy and coordination among the existing organisations rather than setting up parallel institutions or adopting new mechanisms.
Pakistan was the first country to announce its support for President Barack Obama’s 2009 initiative aimed at securing nuclear weapons at vulnerable sites to prevent terrorists from acquiring them. Obama acknowledged the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, and it was after the positive statements made by him during a newspaper interview and subsequent media interactions that Prime Minister Gilani participated in the Washington Summit.
Looking from purely national perspective, the PM’s meeting with the US president on Tuesday (tomorrow) on the sidelines of the summit will overshadow the rest of the event. The two leaders are meeting at a time when the Pakistani parliament has already started debate on the new terms of engagements with the US following the recommendations of a high-powered parliamentary committee which sought apology from Washington over Salala check post attacks, and an end to drone attacks. What actually brought the relations between the two countries to a record low was the covert operation by the Navy SEALS in May 2011 in Abbottabad against Osama bin Laden. “The meeting will be an opportunity for the two sides to continue high-level consultations on areas of mutual interest,” the White House said in a statement issued on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, as the world leaders began converging in the South Korean capital, President Obama made a symbolic visit to the world’s most militarised border on Sunday, striding into the surreal Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea. The US president spent about 10 minutes at an observation post, looking first towards North Korea, then back to the South. “The contrast between South Korea and North Korea could not be clearer, could not be starker,” Obama told American troops at the DMZ. That was a reference to the political freedom and prosperity in South Korea, and the repression and desperate food shortages of the North. Obama’s visit to the demilitarised zone is being seen here as an attempt at keeping pressure on North Korea to back off the planned rocket launch and return to disarmament talks. Iran is going to be another target of his criticism for its refusal to support the global effort for nuclear security – the issue which is likely to dominate the summit though it is not on the official agenda.
