Source: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Speaking to the Wilson Center's CONTEXT, Carnegie's Toby Dalton and Matt Rojansky explained how the issues debated during the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul are viewed in India, Pakistan, Israel, and Russia.
Rojansky said that the Seoul summit represents an opportunity for Russia to show that it has turned the corner from being a nuclear security problem state to being a state that is part of the solution.
Dalton added that from a South Asian standpoint, particularly for India and Pakistan—countries that are not part of the NPT—the Nuclear Security Summit provides an opportunity to engage with the international community on nuclear issues without the politics.
Dalton also highlighted two issues as particularly important this year: converting research reactors that use highly enriched uranium to reactors using low enriched uranium, and the implementation of international legal instruments of nuclear security standards.
Rojansky said that the breakaway territory Transnistria of the former Soviet state Moldova is an important area because of its proximity to the Black Sea, an area where uranium is often smuggled. "Having this ungoverned zone implicates a lot of issues that go beyond nuclear security, but this is something we have to take much more seriously," he said.