Xi will meet Obama in DC
The upcoming Nuclear Security Summit, which Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to attend in the U.S., will focus on nuclear fuel management against a backdrop of increasing terrorism, analysts said Friday. [Special coverage]
During the fourth Nuclear Security Summit, which will be held in Washington from Thursday to April 1, Xi is expected to deliver a keynote speech on China's new measures and new achievements in nuclear security, and raise practical proposals on strengthening global nuclear security, vice foreign minister Li Baodong told a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
China hopes that the summit will step up the international consensus on nuclear security to effectively handle new circumstances and new challenges, and promote capacity-building for various countries to implement nuclear security obligations and political commitments, Li was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying.
China also wants the summit to boost international cooperation on nuclear security and create a shared culture of nuclear security, Li noted.
The international community has to discuss close supervision of nuclear materials at all stages of the process in order to prevent them from being seized by terrorist groups, especially given the spread of nuclear fuel, waste and facilities worldwide, Yang Xiyu, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) and former head of the Office for Korean Peninsula Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Global Times on Friday.
A series of explosions struck Brussels, Belgium at the airport and on the metro on Tuesday. This is the second terrorist attack on a major European metropolis after the one on Paris last November.
The world needs to do more to prevent nuclear terrorism, said International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, AFP reported Friday. "Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear material cannot be excluded," he said.
"To avert nuclear terrorism, the participating countries will center on furthering international cooperation on and management of nuclear materials," Teng Jianqun, a research fellow at the CIIS, told the Global Times on Friday.
This year's meeting, also the final one in a series of summits, aims to "enhance the security and control of fissile materials - in particular, highly enriched uranium and plutonium," according to the Brookings Institution.
Xi's participation demonstrates China's positive and constructive attitude toward working together with other countries to build an international nuclear security system and enhance nuclear global governance, Li said.
A lack of global governance in nuclear security and unified standards in nuclear technology has resulted in disordered management of nuclear materials and facilities, raising the specter of nuclear proliferation, Yang explained.
Li said Xi will meet with state leaders on the sidelines of the summit to exchange views on bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern, noting that Xi's meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama will be the first meeting between the two heads of state this year.
During Xi's State visit to the U.S. in September 2015, China and the U.S. committed to deepening their cooperation on nuclear security.
Teng said the China-U.S. nuclear security center, the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, which opened on March 19 in Beijing, marked the latest successful collaboration on nuclear security.
"This bilateral platform will not only enhance cooperation between the two countries, but also play an exemplary role in promoting multilateral work, such as training programs for personnel who engage in nuclear security in different countries," Yang said.
In addition, the North Korea nuclear issue would still be brought up during the summit, given the country's recent launches, although nuclear security is not about proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Yang noted.
North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine that boosted the power of its ballistic rockets, Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday, after its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February.
Yang said he expected China and other countries, including the U.S., will discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, in hope to prevent new H-bomb tests and rocket launches.
