Nuclear Security Summit - Gateway House

India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, will visit the Republic of South Korea on March 25-27. He is expected to have bilateral consultations with the President of South Korea, Mr. Lee Myung-bak, on March 25th, and then participate in the Nuclear Security Summit.

The Summit brings together participation from more than 50 heads of state or government and various international organizations, which discuss international cooperative measures to protect nuclear materials and facilities from terrorist groups.

India–South Korea bilateral ties have evolved significantly in the last few years. Trade between the two countries has grown exponentially, reaching $20 billion last year, with the potential of surpassing $30 billion by 2014. Many South Korean companies such as Hyundai, LG and Samsung already have a significant presence in the Indian market, and investment by Indian companies in South Korea is growing. Both countries can also enhance cooperation in fields such as defence and civil nuclear technology.

While there have been a number of high-level visits between the two countries in the last two decades, the last Prime Ministerial visit from India to South Korea was in the year 1993.

Picture Courtesy : Web Incorporation/Wikimedia Commons

The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) will take place in Hague, the Netherlands from March 24-25. The Summit brings together participation from more than 53 heads of state or government and various international organisations, which discuss international cooperative measures to protect nuclear materials and facilities from terrorist groups. India will be represented by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, instead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The agenda for the Hague Summit is to prevent nuclear terrorism by reducing hazardous nuclear material around the world, bettering the security of nuclear material and intensifying international co-operation. India faces a potential threat from nuclear terrorism and is expected to focus on building a strong international architecture concerning security. Khurshid is also expected to voice out India’s concerns on the possibility of non state actors getting an access to the nuclear weapons.

The first NSS was held at Washington DC in 2010, where representatives of forty nations and three organisations had agreed that nuclear terrorism with explosive nuclear devices is the biggest threat to security, and made commitments to prevent terrorism. Six more nations participated in the second NSS held at Seoul, South Korea in 2012. The participating nations reviewed the implementations of the agreements made during the Washington Summit. South Korea proposed the issues of radiological security and nuclear security-safety interface in to the agenda, keeping in mind the Fukushima disaster of 2011.