Consultations held before nuclear summit

WASHINGTON: A top US official consulted his counterparts in Islamabad this week on nuclear security as the Obama administration prepared for a world nuclear summit in the United States capital next week.

The State Department said Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins visited Pakistan as the head of a US delegation to the annual meeting of the International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC). This year, the meeting was held at the Pakistan Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Security in Islamabad from March 14 to 18.

Ambassador Jenkins serves as the chair of the NSSC Network. The aim of the annual meeting is to review the status of implementation of the network. On March 31 and April 1, world leaders will gather in Washington for the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, which concludes a pivotal process started by US President Barack Obama in 2010 to intensify global efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism.

As the summits are coming to a close with Mr Obama’s presidency, his administration is using all its resources to achieve some concrete results this year. Since Pakistan and India are the two yet unrecognised nuclear states, they are under the spotlight, at least in the media.

US officials have indicated that they are encouraging a direct meeting between the Pakistani and Indian prime ministers on the sidelines of the summit. American experts argue that the nuclear arms race in South Asia would not end unless relations between these two neighbours improve.