Washington DC Bureau
WASHINGTON -- As they prepare for a summit on nuclear security in Washington next week, Obama administration officials have been quietly trying to craft a common position for world powers that remain sharply divided on the best way to safeguard bomb-making materials.
The two-day summit, which begins Monday, is billed by the White House as the biggest conference of its type in the U.S. since the 1945 conference to create the United Nations. The arrival of leaders of more than 40 countries, including presidents Hu Jintao of China and Manmohan Singh of India, is expected to snarl traffic and attract demonstrations.
The meeting is a matter of personal prestige for President Obama, who campaigned on a promise to secure "loose nukes" in four years. He pledged this week that his meeting will yield a concrete plan and not just "some vague gauzy statement".
Yet foreign diplomats involved in the discussions said U.S. officials have focused on areas of common ground and airbrushed differences while writing the joint communiqué that will be released late Tuesday afternoon. The communiqué was mostly complete days before the meeting, they said.
The meeting "is going to give a new visibility to an issue that hasn't gotten enough attention. It will push people to do more," said one diplomat close to the talks. But in an attempt to persuade countries to take new steps, such as developing common standards for physical security, he said, the administration has sidestepped many touchy issues.
Many countries are highly sensitive to foreign powers' intrusions in their nuclear programs, for example, and would resist international efforts to force them to give up closely held information or allow inspectors to monitor their facilities. India, China, and Russia, for example, have been wary of international efforts to learn about their nuclear programs.
There is even disagreement about the extent of the threat. While some countries, such as the United States and Russia, believe the threat of militant groups acquiring nuclear weapons should be the priority, some European leaders are more concerned about so-called "dirty bomb" radiological materials, which would be much more easily acquired, said Sharon Squassoni, a former U.S. official at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Many non-nuclear states, she added, see the loose nukes agenda as the Americans – the world's dominant nuclear power -- "asking us to do more, and spend more, to make you feel safe".
There are other sensitivities that complicate deal making.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled plans to attend, aides said, because he feared Egypt and Turkey were going to embarrass Israel with complaints about the unacknowledged nuclear program Israel is widely assumed to have.
A senior Arab official involved in summit planning insisted Friday that the Arab countries had no such plans.
"There was no intention to politicize the outcome of the summit," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Los Angeles Times
