Obama closes nuclear summit, calls modern-day threat 'cruel irony of history'
By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama closed his landmark nuclear summit on Tuesday with a tip of the hat to Canada for its move to rid itself of some of its weapons-grade uranium and for its call on nations to spend billions more on nuclear security.
There was just one problem. Canada hasn't, in fact, made such an appeal, said Prime Minister Stephen Harper - at least not recently.
"I have not made that request, but I can assure you there have been discussions among the G8 partners ... it began as a G8 initiative," he told a news conference at the end of the summit.
"Canada is not the originator of the request, but obviously we are going to be looking at this request very seriously and I know all our G8 partners are doing the same."
The confusion came at the conclusion of a historic summit that was billed by the Obama administration as the largest gathering of world leaders on U.S. soil since the United Nations founding conference in San Francisco in 1945.
The summit resulted in consensus among the 47 nations in attendance. They agreed on a wide range of initiatives aimed at reining in errant nuclear materials that could fall into the hands of terrorists.
"Today the United States is joining with our Canadian partners in calling on nations to commit $10 billion to extending our highly successful global partnership to strengthen nuclear security around the world," Obama said in his closing remarks, a nugget of news that quickly popped up on websites and blogs from the U.S. to India.
Canada has already pledged $1 billion to the global partnership, Harper said, explaining that Obama was calling for an additional $10 billion from countries around the world to extend the lifespan of a program Canada spearheaded. The latest request for more money, however, does not originate with Canada.
There was no immediate explanation from the White House explaining the confusion.
The nations at the summit issued a communique late Tuesday, agreeing to lock down the world's most vulnerable and volatile nuclear materials within the next four years in an attempt to prevent terrorists from unleashing a global catastrophe.
"Nuclear terrorism is one of the most challenging threats to international security and strong nuclear security measure the most effective means to prevent terrorist criminals or other unauthorized actors from acquiring nuclear materials," it stated.
It emphasized "the need for co-operation among states to effectively prevent and respond to incidents of illicit nuclear trafficking and agree to share....information and expertise through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms in areas such as nuclear detection, forensics, law enforcement and the development of new technologies."
Canada's original billion-dollar commitment was made during the G8 meeting in Kananaskis in 2002 as part of a new initiative called the Global Partnership Program - $20 billion over 10 years to ensure the destruction of nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union.
Canada has so far spent some $650 million on the plan, which arose in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to keep groups like al-Qaida from getting their hands on nuclear material. Obama, it would appear, wants to extend the program for another 10 years.
Earlier Tuesday, Obama called it a "cruel irony of history" that the threat of nuclear terrorism is mounting even as the possibility of nuclear war between countries diminishes.
"The risk of a nuclear attack has gone up," Obama told the summit amid the tightest security in D.C. since the president's inauguration last year.
"Terrorist networks such as al-Qaida have tried to acquire the material for a nuclear weapon, and if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it. Were they to do so, it would be a catastrophe for the world, causing extraordinary loss of life, and striking a major blow to global peace and stability."
Obama urged nations to move beyond discussion and take concrete action over the next four years to ensure that nuclear weapons do not fall into terrorist hands.
"It is increasingly clear that the danger of nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats to global security - to our collective security."
On the eve of the summit, Harper did his bit. He agreed to send highly enriched uranium from the Chalk River Laboratories reactor near Ottawa back to the United States, where it will be rendered useless in terms of making nuclear weapons.
Canada has been exporting weapons-grade uranium for decades from the United States to manufacture medical isotopes at Chalk River. Hundreds of kilograms of the highly enriched uranium has accumulated there, enough to make several "Hiroshima-sized" nuclear weapons, Canadian scientist John Polanyi has said.
As the summit got underway on Tuesday, Canada, the United States and Mexico announced an agreement to work together to convert the highly enriched uranium in Mexico's research reactor into low-enriched uranium. Canada will kick in $5 million to help transport the uranium to the U.S. and fully convert it.
All three countries lauded the announcement as something that will strengthen nuclear security in North America.
"I welcome this critical step forward, which is a signal of our strong political partnership and our shared commitment to nuclear security in North America," Obama said in a statement.
Harper added: "This nuclear security project demonstrates that collective action can deliver concrete results."
Ukraine has also announced it intends to rid itself of weapons-grade uranium in the years to come.
Although Canada stressed Monday that Canadian security measures at its nuclear reactors were "world class," massive amounts of plutonium and weapons-grade uranium in countries around the globe are believed to be insufficiently protected from terrorist groups and organized crime.
The issue was a major focus of the summit as it shone the spotlight on countries like Iran, North Korea and others that are viewed as a threat to global nuclear security.
European Union President Herman Van Rompuy called on all countries on Tuesday to sign and ratify the convention on the 1980 Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. That pact was amended in 2005 to require states to protect materials like plutonium and weapons-grade uranium at all times, not just when it's in transit.
"Nuclear terrorism ... represents a most serious threat to international security with potentially devastating consequences to our societies," Van Rompuy said.
The leaders agreed to hold a followup nuclear security summit in South Korea in 2012.
