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United States President Obama: The 6191st meeting of the Security Council
is called to order.
The provisional agenda for this meeting is before the Council in
document S/Agenda/6191, which reads,
"Maintenance of international peace and security,
nuclear proliferation, and nuclear disarmament."
Unless I hear any objection, I shall
consider the agenda adopted.
Agenda is adopted.
I wish to warmly welcome the distinguished heads of state and
government, the General -- the Secretary General,
the Director General of the IAEA,
ministers and other distinguished representatives
present in the Security Council chamber.
Your presence is an affirmation of the importance of the subject
matter to be discussed.
The Security Council summit will now begin its consideration of
item two of the agenda.
Members of the Council have before them document S/2009/473,
which contains the text of a draft resolution prepared in the
course of the Council's prior consultations.
I wish to draw Council members' attention to document S/2009/463
containing a letter dated 16 September 2009 from the United
States of America, transmitting a concept paper on the item
under consideration.
In accordance with the understanding reached earlier
among members, the Security Council will take action on the
draft resolution before it prior to hearing statements from the
Secretary General and Council members.
Accordingly, I shall put the draft resolution
to the vote now.
Will those in favor of the draft resolution contained in document
S/2009/473 please raise their hand?
The results of the voting is as follows:
The draft resolution is received--
unanimously, 15 votes in favor.
The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as
Resolution 1887 of 2009.
I want to thank again everybody who is in attendance.
I wish you all good morning.
In the six-plus decades that this Security Council has been
in existence, only four other meetings of this
nature have been convened.
I called for this one so that we may address at the highest level
a fundamental threat to the security of all peoples and all
nations: the spread and use of nuclear weapons.
As I said yesterday, this very institution was founded at the
dawn of the atomic age, in part because man's capacity to kill
had to be contained.
And although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the
Cold War, we now face proliferation of a scope and
complexity that demands new strategies and new approaches.
Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or
Moscow; Tokyo or Beijing; London or Paris -- could kill hundreds
of thousands of people.
And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies,
and our very way of life.
Once more, the United Nations has a pivotal role to play in
preventing this crisis.
The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared
commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework
for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we
work toward that goal.
It reflects the agenda I outlined in Prague,
and builds on a consensus that all nations have the right to
peaceful nuclear energy; that nations with nuclear weapons
have the responsibility to move toward disarmament;
and those without them have the responsibility to forsake them.
Today, the Security Council endorsed a global effort to lock
down all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.
The United States will host a summit next April to advance
this goal and help all nations achieve it.
This resolution will also help strengthen the institutions and
initiatives that combat the smuggling, financing,
and theft of proliferation-related materials.
It calls on all states to freeze any financial assets that are
being used for proliferation.
And it calls for stronger safeguards to reduce the
likelihood that peaceful nuclear weapons programs can be diverted
to a weapons program -- that peaceful nuclear programs can be
diverted to a weapons program.
The resolution we passed today will also strengthen the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
We have made it clear that the Security Council has both the
authority and the responsibility to respond
to violations to this treaty.
We've made it clear that the Security Council has both the
authority and responsibility to determine and respond as
necessary when violations of this treaty threaten
international peace and security.
That includes full compliance with Security Council
resolutions on Iran and North Korea.
Let me be clear: This is not about singling out individual
nations -- it is about standing up for the rights of all nations
who do live up to their responsibilities.
The world must stand together.
And we must demonstrate that international law is not an
empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced.
The next 12 months will be absolutely critical in
determining whether this resolution and our overall
efforts to stop the spread and use of nuclear
weapons are successful.
And all nations must do their part to make this work.
In America, I have promised that we will pursue a new agreement
with Russia to substantially reduce our strategic
warheads and launchers.
We will move forward with the ratification of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and open the door to deeper cuts
in our own arsenal.
In January, we will call upon countries to begin negotiations
on a treaty to end the production of
fissile material for weapons.
And the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May will
strengthen that agreement.
Now, we harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing
about a world without nuclear weapons.
We know there are plenty of cynics,
and that there will be setbacks to prove their point.
But there will also be days like today that push us forward --
days that tell a different story.
It is the story of a world that understands that no difference
or division is worth destroying all that we have
built and all that we love.
It is a recognition that can bring people of different
nationalities and ethnicities and ideologies together.
In my own country, it has brought Democrats and Republican
leaders together -- leaders like George Shultz, Bill Perry,
Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn, who are with us here today.
And it was a Republican President, Ronald Reagan,
who once articulated the goal we now seek in
the starkest of terms.
I quote: "A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
And no matter how great the obstacles may seem,
we must never stop our efforts to reduce the weapons of war.
We must never stop until all -- we must never stop at all until
we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished
from the face of the Earth."
That is our task.
That can be our destiny.
And we will leave this meeting with a renewed determination to
achieve this shared goal.
Thank you.