With the US President Barack Obama presiding over a key session of UN Security Council on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament on Friday, the Americans have asked all countries to join the NPT and hoped that the powerful body of the UN would endorse its call for world without nuclear weapons.
“The US position is that all countries should join the NPT, and so the resolution will address that issue,” a top US Disarmament official Gary Samore told newsmen.
Mr. Obama will be the first US President to chair a summit-level meeting of the Council in which 14 heads of state will join him. The Council is expected to vote unanimously to adopt the draft resolution on this circulated by the US.
The tone for the crucial meeting was set by Mr. Obama, who in his maiden address to the General Assembly on Wednesday told nations who refuse to live up to their obligations on nuclear non-proliferation must “face consequences.”
Mr. Samore, the National Security Council Coordinator for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, reminded other countries of their responsibility to secure atomic material on their territory so that not even a single nuclear device falls into the hands of terrorists.
The US official said the NPT is something that “we would hope that the Council would endorse”. Mr. Samore said as of now, it is not illegal not to join NPT.
