Nuclear Security Summit and South Asia

All on board over N-fuel offer: official By Anwar Iqbal
Dawn, 15 Apr, 2010

WASHINGTON: The decision to offer nuclear fuel services to the world was made at a recent meeting of the National Command Authority, said a senior aide who was assisting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at a news conference on Tuesday evening.

The aide, who was responding to a question put to the prime minister, said the country’s highest decision-making body on strategic issues had made a consensus decision to create a fuel bank.

The offer, made in a national document presented at the two-day nuclear summit in Washington, reflected the decision made by the National Command Authority, the aide said.

“As a country with advanced fuel cycle capability, Pakistan is in a position to provide nuclear fuel cycle services under IAEA safeguards, and to participate in any non-discriminatory nuclear fuel cycle assurance mechanism,” said the document presented at the summit, which ended in Washington on Tuesday.

Before leaving Washington, the prime minister told a news conference that Pakistan’s participation in the summit had boosted international confidence in its capability to protect its nuclear arsenals and brought (a higher degree of) ‘legitimacy to our nuclear programme’.

Mr Gilani noted that a person no less than US President Barack Obama personally quashed all doubts about Pakistan’s nuclear programme, publicly voicing his administration’s firm confidence in the country’s safety mechanism.

“Our nuclear programme is in safe hands and President Obama is totally convinced that our command and control system is undoubtedly effective,” said the prime minister.

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Related:
After the Summit - NYT Editorial
Statement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Nuclear Security Summit, Washington DC - The Hindu
Factbox: National commitments promised at nuclear summit - The Vancouver Sun
Obama's Speech at the Nuclear Security Summit, April 2010 - CFR
 
Background:
Nuclear Posture Review - Department of Defense, USA
Nuclear Threat Initiative - website
Nuclear Security - Mohamed ElBaradei, Graham Allison, Ernesto Zedill