Weekly Address: President Obama – Securing the World from Nuclear Terrorism

The President’s Weekly Address post is also an Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, the President spoke from the Nuclear Security Summit on one of the greatest threats to global security—terrorists getting their hands on a weapon of mass destruction, such as a nuclear weapon. He discussed the global effort we have been leading to secure the world’s nuclear materials and highlighted the fact that working with other nations, we have removed or secured enough nuclear material for more than 150 nuclear weapons—material that will now never fall into the hands of terrorists. The President also reiterated his commitment to making sure the world remains united and focused on destroying ISIL. He emphasized that defeating ISIL remains our top priority, and during the summit, he focused on ways to step up our efforts to disrupt terrorist attacks. Because of the progress of this week’s summit, and over recent years, more of the world’s nuclear material is secure, and the President will continue to do everything in his power to keep our nation safe and strong and free.

Transcript: Weekly Address: Securing the World from Nuclear Terrorism

Remarks of President Barack Obama as Delivered
Weekly Address, The White House, April 2, 2016

Hi, everybody. This week, I’m speaking to you from our Nuclear Security Summit. I welcomed more than 50 leaders from around the world to make sure we’re working together to meet one of the greatest threats to global security—terrorists getting their hands on a weapon of mass destruction, like a nuclear weapon.

Fortunately, because of our efforts so far, no terrorist group has yet succeeded in obtaining a nuclear device or producing a dirty bomb using radioactive materials. But we know that al Qaeda has tried. ISIL has already used chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq. And if they ever got hold of a nuclear weapon or nuclear material, we have no doubt they’d use it.

That’s why we’ve been leading a global effort to secure the world’s nuclear materials. And with summits like this, we’ve made important progress. Working with other nations, we have removed or secured enough nuclear material for more than 150 nuclear weapons—material that will now never fall into the hands of terrorists.

All of South America is now free of these deadly materials. Central Europe and Southeast Asia are on track to be free of them later this year. That means that as terrorists and criminal gangs look around for the deadly ingredients for a nuclear device, vast regions of the world are now off limits. This is a remarkable achievement. And at this summit, we pledged to keep up our efforts to prevent the world’s most deadly networks from obtaining the world’s most deadly weapons.

Our summit was also another opportunity to make sure the world remains united and focused on destroying ISIL. A majority of the nations who came here are part of our global coalition against ISIL. A number of our countries have been targeted by ISIL. Just about all our nations have seen citizens travel to join ISIL in Syria and Iraq.

In Syria and Iraq, ISIL continues to lose ground. Our coalition continues to take out its leaders, including those planning terrorist attacks against our countries. They’re losing their oil infrastructure and revenues. Their morale is suffering.

As ISIL is squeezed in Syria and Iraq, it’s lashing out elsewhere, as we’ve seen most recently— and tragically—from Turkey to Brussels. During our summit, we focused on ways to step up our efforts to disrupt terrorist attacks. It requires even more cooperation to prevent the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and sharing even more information and intelligence. That’s why I invited all the nations represented at this summit to join us in a broader discussion among our intelligence and security services on how we can improve information sharing to prevent terrorist attacks.

This continues to be a difficult fight. But every day, our dedicated professionals—military, diplomatic, intelligence, counterterrorism, homeland security, law enforcement, nuclear experts—are working to protect us. Because of the progress we made this week, and over recent years, more of the world’s nuclear material is secure. It’s harder for terrorists to get it. And as Commander in Chief, I want you to know that we’re going to keep doing everything in our power to keep our nation safe and strong and free.

Bolding added.

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From the White House: Joint Statement on Sustaining Action to Strengthen Global Nuclear Security

The Nuclear Security Summit process has led to significant achievements in nuclear security at national, regional, and global levels; but the work of building a strengthened, sustained, and comprehensive global nuclear security architecture – consisting of legal instruments, international organizations and initiatives, internationally accepted guidance, and best practices – requires continuous attention.

We need sustained action and ambition on nuclear security after the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit to address continuing and evolving nuclear security challenges, with the objectives of advancing implementation of nuclear security commitments and building a strengthened, sustainable and comprehensive global nuclear security architecture.

The Governments of Argentina, Armenia, ­­­­­Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Republic of Korea, Romania, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam, and the following international organizations: INTERPOL and United Nations, aiming to facilitate cooperation and sustain activity on nuclear security after the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, commit to:

· Establish a Nuclear Security Contact Group; and

· Designate an appropriately authorized and informed senior official or officials to participate in the Contact Group.

The Contact Group is tasked with:

· Convening annually on the margins of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and, as may be useful, in connection with other related meetings;

· Discussing a broad range of nuclear security-related issues, including identifying emerging trends that may require more focused attention;

· Promoting and assessing implementation of nuclear security commitments, including those made during the Nuclear Security Summit process, reflected in the four Nuclear Security Summit Communiqués, the 2010 Washington Work Plan, the 2016 Action Plans, national commitments and associated joint statements, and gift baskets;

· Developing and maintaining linkages to nongovernmental experts and nuclear industry; and,

· Determining any additional steps that may be appropriate to support these goals.

The Contact Group may also consider and make recommendations to their respective leaders on convening any future Nuclear Security Summits.

We welcome the participation of all countries that subscribe to the goals set out in this Joint Statement and wish to contribute to the work of the Contact Group.