Nuclear summit opens in Washington
Top news: Leaders from 46 nations have come to Washington D.C. for a summit focused on securing nuclear weapons. The meeting is being hailed as the largest of its kind since the 1945 summit to create the United Nations. President Barack Obama is hoping that the talks will lead to the beginning of a concerted global effort to "lock down" existing stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium and prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists.
"Our biggest concerns right now are actually the issues of nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation: more countries obtaining nuclear weapons; those weapons being less controllable, less secure; nuclear materials floating around the globe," Obama said in Prague on Thursday.
With talks focused on this relatively narrow goal, a number of more contentious issues are being purposefully left off the agenda. These include the escalating nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also chosen not to attend the conference out of concern that Arab nations will bring up the issue Israel's nuclear weapons program.
By focusing the summit on a relatively narrow issue, Obama hopes to reach concrete commitments at the meeting, rather than a "vague, gauzy statement."
“We anticipate a communiqué that spells out very clearly, here’s how we’re going to achieve locking down all the nuclear materials over the next four years, with very specific steps in order to assure that,” he said.
Poland: Poles gathered in Warsaw to pay tribute to President Lech Kaczysnki and the other top officials killed in a plane crash on their way back from Russia on Saturday. Kaczynski's body will lie in state until Tuesday.
Investigators are now looking into why the pilot of the plane did not heed the instructions of air traffic controllers who urged him not to attempt to land in bad weather.
"Our biggest concerns right now are actually the issues of nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation: more countries obtaining nuclear weapons; those weapons being less controllable, less secure; nuclear materials floating around the globe," Obama said in Prague on Thursday.
With talks focused on this relatively narrow goal, a number of more contentious issues are being purposefully left off the agenda. These include the escalating nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also chosen not to attend the conference out of concern that Arab nations will bring up the issue Israel's nuclear weapons program.
By focusing the summit on a relatively narrow issue, Obama hopes to reach concrete commitments at the meeting, rather than a "vague, gauzy statement."
“We anticipate a communiqué that spells out very clearly, here’s how we’re going to achieve locking down all the nuclear materials over the next four years, with very specific steps in order to assure that,” he said.
Poland: Poles gathered in Warsaw to pay tribute to President Lech Kaczysnki and the other top officials killed in a plane crash on their way back from Russia on Saturday. Kaczynski's body will lie in state until Tuesday.
Investigators are now looking into why the pilot of the plane did not heed the instructions of air traffic controllers who urged him not to attempt to land in bad weather.
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-By Joshua Keating |  |
Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images
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