On 5 April 2009 United States President Barack Obama delivered a speech at Hradčany Square, Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic. Obama spoke about the threat of nuclear weapons since the Cold War, commenting on common values and shared security, outlining his vision of a world without nuclear weapons and the "spread of catastrophic weapons".
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The President explained that the United States "will begin the work of reducing our arsenal. To reduce our warheads and stockpiles" and "will negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia this year. President Medvedev and I began this process in London, and will seek a new agreement by the end of this year that is legally binding and sufficiently bold. And this will set the stage for further cuts, and we will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor."
To achieve a Global Ban on Nuclear Testing, my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue US ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. After more than five decades of talks, it is time for the testing of nuclear weapons, to finally be banned, and to cut of the building blocks needed for a bomb. The United States will seek a new treaty that verifiably ends the production of fissile materials intended for use in state nuclear weapons. If we are serious about stopping the spread of these weapons, then we should put an end to the dedicated production of weapons-grade materials that create them. That's the first step.Second, together we will strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a basis for cooperation.
The basic bargain is sound: Countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy. To strengthen the treaty, we should embrace several principles. We need more resources and authority to strengthen international inspections. We need real and immediate consequences for countries caught breaking the rules or trying to leave the treaty without cause.
And we should build a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an International Fuel Bank, so that countries can access peaceful power without increasing the risk of proliferation. That must be the right of every national that renounces nuclear weapons, especially for developing countries embarking on peaceful programs.[1]
Detailing how the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism would both play an important part, of a forthcoming "Global Summit on Nuclear Security" in March, 2010.[2][3]
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