Minister Sikorski at Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague

25 March 2014

Minister Sikorski at Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague

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International commitments to reduce the nuclear weapons threat, also in the context of the Ukrainian crisis, were discussed at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague that ends Tuesday.

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At the summit attended by 53 countries, Poland was represented by Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. In his address, Minister Sikorski noted that Poland has been fulfilling all of its commitments to reduce the nuclear weapons threat placing it very high in international rankings. The discussion mainly focused on international security guarantees provided in exchange for voluntarily giving up nuclear weapons.

“In 1994, Ukraine did exactly what we would like North Korea to do today. Restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity is therefore very important for our future guarantees to be credible and interesting for countries with nuclear ambitions,” said Minister Radosław Sikorski. The chief of Poland’s diplomacy recalled that in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons Ukraine received security guarantees in the framework of the Budapest Memorandum signed by the United States, United Kingdom and Russia in December 1994 and later by other countries. “It is very important that such documents are respected and enforced,” noted Poland’s top diplomat.

The minister stressed that such agreements should be guaranteed not only by their signatories but also by the entire international community that has an interest in certain countries giving up their nuclear weapons.

The Nuclear Security Summit also served as an opportunity to hold bilateral consultations between the chief of Poland’s diplomacy and foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, Canada, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The summit ended with the adoption of a political communiqué, which stressed that nuclear security is the responsibility of individual states. It also emphasized the importance of international cooperation and the special role played by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The next summit will take place in the US in 2016. The countries declared that by then they will continue their efforts to strengthen nuclear security, mainly by reducing the stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, converting reactor fuel to low-enriched uranium, and implementing the existing mechanisms of international law, especially the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.