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Russia will not attend summit in Washington

CCTV.com

03-31-2016 11:16 BJT

Full coverage: Xi Visits Czech Republic, Attends Nuclear Security Summit

Among the 50-plus nations attending this week’s Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, one notable absentee is Russia.  CCTV's Daria Bondarchuk has more, on why Moscow says this decision is neither spontaneous nor sensational.

The Nuclear Security Summit in Washington will bring together world leaders on a mission to reinforce their countries' commitments to securing nuclear technologies and materials.

Russia has attended three previous summits; in Washington DC in 2010, in Seoul in 2012 and in The Hague in 2014.

However at the end of the last summit Russia said it had already decided it would not participate in the next one.

Some countries interpreted that decision as a reaction to increased tensions with the United States. Russia’s also been accused of fencing itself off from direct dialogue on nuclear safety at a time of increasing threats of nuclear terrorism.

"The agenda of nuclear security and nuclear non-proliferation is very tough and very important especially now. We all know that so-titled Islamic State was interested in getting access to nuclear technologies and even more, some people connected to the Paris attacks tried to follow nuclear scientists in France," said Petr Topychkanov, Non-Proliferation Program associate, Carnegie Center.

But Moscow maintains that while previous summits were useful in forging an international consensus on nuclear security and raising awareness of the nuclear terrorism threat, they’ve now run their course.

"After these questions were successfully discussed in an informal way and after a number of commitments were made unilaterally and voluntarily," said Dmitry Konukhov, research Assoc., Center for Energy and Security Studies.

"It’s time for these questions to be transferred to long existing mechanisms, such as the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism if we speak about nuclear terrorism and IAEA if the talk is about physical security of nuclear materials."

Russian experts say Russia’s absence from the security summit does not mean that it intends to turn away from its previous summit commitments. Nor, they say, is it planning to give up its obligations under the United Nations nuclear body – the IAEA, or the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

Russia says the Nuclear Security Summit, however well-intentioned, has become a source of interference for the larger bodies whose work should be paramount… most significantly, the IAEA. And for that reason, Russia says it can no longer be a part.

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