A preparation meeting for the nuclear security summit, which US President Barack Obama plans to convene in Washington next spring, will be held in Japan in December, a visiting executive of the US nuclear security agency has said.
Referring to Japan's technical expertise and long history of work on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, Thomas D'Agostino, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said yesterday, "I expect the world will have a greater opportunity to see this in December during the nuclear security summit preparation meeting that will be happening here in Japan."
D'Agostino also said he hopes to continue good cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency under the tenure of director general-elect Yukiya Amano of Japan.
Obama called for the summit in Prague this April laying out his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
At the summit, world leaders are expected to discuss concrete measures to safely manage and guard nuclear fissile materials, which will be derived in the process of reducing the more than 20,000 nuclear warheads in the world, as well as other substances convertible to nuclear weapons scattered across the globe.
A Japanese diplomatic source said participants in the preparation meeting are expected to discuss possible agenda items for the summit and the Japanese Foreign Ministry is currently studying candidate sites for the meeting.