EDITORIAL: Nuclear Security Summit

The possibility of a large-scale nuclear war is much smaller now than during the Cold War era. On the other hand, the risk of nuclear terrorism has increased sharply. The only way to prevent nuclear attacks by terrorists is to bolster international cooperation to ensure safekeeping of nuclear materials and tighten the crackdown on the nuclear black market.

This is the thinking that led U.S. President Barack Obama to propose and convene the Nuclear Security Summit. The conference, held earlier this week in Washington, has placed the threat of nuclear terrorism high on the list of policy challenges facing the international community.

The summit marked another step forward for Obama's diplomatic campaign to move the world beyond Cold-War thinking and reduce the current nuclear threats.

Preventing nuclear terrorism is a crucial security challenge not only for the United States but also for the entire world. A nuclear terrorist attack against a major city would cause vast human casualties. In addition, in this globalized world, it would severely disrupt worldwide financial and trade systems as well as information and telecommunication networks, creating a grave crisis for the world economy as a whole.

Such a view is reflected in the summit communique, which says, "Nuclear terrorism is one of the most challenging threats to international security."

The communique calls for securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world within four years. The "work plan" issued along with the communique commits the nations to work harder to ensure effective implementation of two related treaties: the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, which sets rules concerning the security of nuclear facilities, and the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, designed to expose and punish nuclear terrorism as a grave crime.

The summit participants also agreed on international support for the efforts of countries to enact and implement legislation to choke off the nuclear black market.

If there is any hole in the international nuclear security system, terrorist groups will readily exploit it. The challenge now is to ensure that the countries will effectively implement the agreements made at the summit.

Unfortunately, the recognition of nuclear terrorism as a serious threat is not shared widely among developing countries. Some disgruntled countries argue that precious human and financial resources should first be used for further nuclear arms reduction rather than for efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism.

How to overcome such disagreements among nations is a formidable challenge facing the international community.

Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed that his country will place great importance on nuclear security with a responsible attitude. North Korea and Iran, which are criticized for their nuclear proliferation problems, are both suspected to have been involved in trade in the nuclear black market. But China has not taken a tough stance toward the two nations.

We want Beijing to work closely with the West to take effective measures to block illegal trade in nuclear materials involving the two countries.

The nuclear summit was also attended by India and Pakistan, which have developed nuclear weapons while turning their backs on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as well as Israel, which is believed to possess its own nuclear arsenal.

The summit has effectively created a new framework for international efforts to reduce the nuclear threats outside the NPT regime.

The basic principle concerning nuclear nonproliferation should be to urge non-NPT nuclear powers to denuclearize themselves and then join the treaty.

But the nuclear security summits should also be used to promote international recognition of the basic fact that nuclear arms reduction is essential for preventing nuclear terrorism and to make a diplomatic breakthrough for progress toward multilateral nuclear disarmament.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 15