Finland is organising a preparatory conference in Helsinki ahead of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul
Press release 247/2011
30 September 2011
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will open the sherpa conference preparing for next year’s Nuclear Security Summit, to be held in Seoul. This preparatory conference takes place in Helsinki and begins on 4 October. The summit will be held on 26–27 March 2012.
In all, 47 countries and four international organisations are involved in the nuclear security summit process. The participants comprise nearly every major country engaged in nuclear activities, including India, Israel and Pakistan, which have remained outside the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
The first nuclear safety summit was held in Washington in April 2010 and adopted a communiqué and programme for further work. The purpose of the summit in Seoul is to strengthen the commitments of Washington’s summit further and to chart implementation of the programme of work in the participating countries.
The goal of the project, based on an initiative of President Barack Obama, is to prevent unlawful possession of nuclear materials and to secure nuclear materials in four years. This will be accomplished by intensifying national security arrangements at nuclear installations and during transfers of nuclear materials, deepening international cooperation and by developing the International Atomic Energy Agency's operating conditions. Particular attention is paid to nuclear substances central to the production of nuclear weapons: highly enriched uranium and plutonium. The communiqué considers nuclear terrorism to be one of the greatest threats to international security.
Additional information: Ambassador Pekka Ojanen, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5110, and Counsellor Mauri Riihonen, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, tel. +358 10 606 4007