WASHINGTON– Dozens of the world’s highest-profile leaders will begin arriving Wednesday in Washington for a major gathering devoted to securing nuclear material.
The session comes at a moment of global unease after terror attacks in Belgium and a steady drumbeat of nuclear provocations from North Korea. U.S. officials say preventing ISIS from obtaining nuclear material remains a top priority heading into the gathering.
President Barack Obama will host dignitaries from 56 nations and organizations for the Nuclear Security Summit, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Francois Hollande, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
He’ll convene a trilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Thursday morning, seeking to improve ties between the Asian leaders who have been at odds over historic grievances related to World War II.
In his only formal bilateral meeting, Obama will sit for talks with President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday afternoon to discuss security, climate and economic issues.
He’ll also check in with some of the leaders from the so-called P5+1 countries who helped broker the Iran nuclear deal last year as the pact takes effect, including France, Italy and Britain.
One country from that group, Russia, declined to send a representative to the meeting this week, a snub organizers deemed “unfortunate.” Russia plays an important role in global nuclear security as one of five “nuclear weapon states” designated by a global non-proliferation treaty.
“We hope that Russia, as the host of the first nuclear security summit of ‘G7+1’ leaders in 1996, still shares the view that securing nuclear materials and combatting nuclear terrorism are priorities well worth the personal attention of world leaders,” a statement on the summit’s website reads.
Obama declined a request to meet with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, though the White House emphasized that they’ve met often in the last several months. Erdoğan has come under scrutiny for his efforts to stop the flow of foreign fighters transiting through Turkey from Syria. He’s also faced criticism from U.S. leaders for his crackdown on journalists, including from Vice President Joe Biden when he visited Istanbul last month.
Belgium and Pakistan are sending top cabinet officials to the nuclear summit rather than the heads of their governments after terror attacks rocked both countries.
This week’s meetings mark the fourth Nuclear Security Summit after Obama announced in 2009 he was spearheading an international effort to secure nuclear material. The three previous sessions were held in Washington, Seoul and The Hague.
Leaders plan to meet Thursday and Friday both at the White House and at the Washington Convention Center to discuss ways to reduce the use of highly enriched uranium and combat nuclear smuggling.
Aside from talks on nuclear security, Obama plans to convene a special session focused on ISIS, including bolstering security in urban centers and preventing the terror group from obtaining chemical or radiological weapons. Officials say ISIS hasn’t yet obtained those types of material.
Planning for the session began earlier this year, before the terror attacks in Brussels but after the Paris and San Bernardino, California, mass killings.
