Brussels, 31/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - Against the backdrop of a continuous wave of terrorist attacks across the world carried out by jihadist groups such as Islamic State (IS)/Da'esh, like the attacks in Brussels on 22 March, and in the wake of information about a hypothetical nuclear terrorist attack, the doomsday scenario of a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack was expected to be among the subjects discussed at the fourth international summit on nuclear security being held in Washington on Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April.
Continuing the process launched by US President Barack Obama in Prague in 2009, the nuclear security summit offers an international framework for discussions at the highest political level on nuclear threats and actions to strengthen nuclear security. The main objective of this fourth nuclear security summit is to “engage leaders to worki together and to strengthen their commitments to securing nuclear materials”, the European Commission stated on Thursday 31 March.
The EU, which was due to be represented in Washington by European Council President Donald Tusk and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, was expected to underline its commitment to and achievements in the domain of nuclear security with special emphasis on regional and international cooperation.
On Thursday evening, Tusk was invited by Obama to the official dinner for heads of state, while Mogherini was expected to attend the official dinner organised by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary for Energy Ernest Moniz.
Around 50 foreign dignitaries were expected in Washington, including French President François Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, South Korean President Park Guen-hye, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and the prime ministers of Japan, Shinzo Abe, and India, Narendra Modi.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was not, however, expected to attend the summit, and the leaders of Iran and North Korea, with their controversial nuclear programmes, were not invited.
On the sidelines of the summit on Friday, Tusk and Mogherini were due to take part in a working session of the E3 (China, USA and Russia) and the EU3 (France, Germany and the UK) on monitoring implementation of the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) on the control of the Iranian nuclear programme.
The summit was due to begin on Friday with a plenary session focusing on national actions to strengthen nuclear security. It was due to be followed by a working lunch on international and institutional actions to strengthen nuclear security, and to conclude with a political discussion based on possible nuclear threat scenarios.
The Washington summit comes against the backdrop of information on the threat of a nuclear terrorist attack, in the light of revelations made by Belgian and international media that the Islamist terrorist cell responsible for the attack in Brussels on 22 March had planned to make a radioactive “dirty bomb”, after a Belgian nuclear expert was secretly monitored.
After the Brussels attacks, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, said in an interview with French news agency AFP that “the possibility of nuclear materials being used cannot be excluded” with regard to terrorist attacks.
In Belgian daily newspaper La Libre Belgique on 26 March, the EU counter-terrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, said he would not be surprised “if there were (cyber-attack) attempts” … “to commit attacks within five years”.
The nuclear security summit will not be dedicated exclusively to the terrorist risk, but countries from the international anti-jihadist military coalition will meet on the sidelines of the summit, AFP reported on Wednesday 30 March. As the Pentagon said on 29 March, the US is concerned that weapons of mass destruction might fall into the hands of terrorist organisations, some of which have, for years, had ambitions to acquire nuclear materials.
Most experts doubt that a terrorist group might one day equip itself with an atomic weapon, but many fear that it may get hold of uranium or plutonium to try and make a “dirty bomb” - from which the spread of radioactivity would have terrible consequences, AFP states.
According to the IAEA, nearly 2,800 incidents related to the trafficking, illegal possession or loss of nuclear materials have been reported in the world over the last 20 years. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)