India, 24 other nations pledge action plans at N-security meet

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Apr 14 (PTI) India, China, Japan and Canada
were among 25 countries that announced specific action plans
at the Nuclear Security Summit here with regard to non-
proliferation, including setting up of facilities for research
and development and contribution of funds to International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the
summit of the 47-nation convened by US President Barack Obama
Tuesday, announced India's decision to set up a Global Nuclear
Energy Centre for conducting research and development of
design systems that are secure, proliferation resistant and
sustainable.
As soon as Singh made the announcement, US President
Barack Obama intervened to welcome it, saying "this will be
one more tool to establish best practises" in the quest for
nuclear safety.
While China said it would establish a nuclear security
Centre of Excellence, Japan announced launching an integrated
regional support centre; research and development on detection
and forensics; contributing new resources to IAEA's Nuclear
Security Fund; and hosting and funding a World Institute of
Nuclear Security best practices conference.
"I want to commend my partners for the very important
commitments that they made in conjunction with this
summit," Obama said.
Armenia announced that it would ratify the International
Convention on Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism
(ICSANT) and pass new export control law while Argentina said
it would join the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear
Terrorism; moving toward the ratification of the ICSANT and
2005 Amendment of the Convention on Physical Protection of
Nuclear Materials.
At the summit, Australia said it is moving towards the
ratification of the International Convention on Suppression of
Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and Belgium announced that it is
contributing USD 300,000 to IAEA's Nuclear Security Fund.
While Chile announced that it is removing all highly
enriched uranium (18 kgs), Canada said it is returning a large
amount of spent highly-enriched uranium fuel from their
medical isotope production reactor to the US; championing the
extension of G-8 Global Partnership Against Spread of Weapons
and Materials of Mass Destruction; funding highly-enriched
uranium removals from Mexico and Vietnam; hosting and funding
a World Institute of Nuclear Security best practices workshop
in Ottawa; and unveiling USD 100 million in new bilateral
security cooperation with Russia. (More) PTI