Nuke terror plan announced

At the G8 summit held recently in St. Petersburg, Russia, Russia’s President Putin and U.S. President Bush announced the joint “Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.” The two countries “call upon like-minded nations to expand and accelerate efforts that develop partnership capacity to combat nuclear terrorism on a determined and systematic basis,” the statement said.

The central objective of the initiative is to develop a network of nations committed to working together on eliminating the threat of nuclear terrorism. In building this network, Russia and the U.S. plan to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and with any other nations that choose to participate.

Practical steps envisioned in the plan include:
• strengthening procedures and systems to ensure accounting, control and physical protection of nuclear material and radioactive substances;
• detecting and suppressing illegal trafficking or any other activity likely to increase the chance of terrorists acquiring such substances;
• improving responses to any terrorist act involving nuclear weapons;
• cooperation in developing technical countermeasures.

The initiative builds on the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, which Russia and the U.S. were the first to sign on September 14 of last year. A priority objective is to secure international compliance with the provisions of UNSCR 1540, a resolution passed in 2004 at the urging of the two countries. The resolution is designed to prevent weapons of mass destruction from entering black market networks and falling into terrorist hands.

However some observers found the announcement short on specifics. One former foreign affairs insider said that while the intent was laudable, “it leaves you scratching your head about what is going to happen.” In a meeting with the press, undersecretary of state for arms control Robert Joseph said that a meeting was planned “in the coming months” at which member nations would agree on guiding principles and develop concrete plans to implement them.