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President Basescu arrived at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul
Romania has a responsible policy of preventing and combating the use of nuclear materials and radioactive sources for destructive purposes, said President Traian Basescu in the speech he delivered during the first session of the Nuclear Security Summit on Monday in Seoul.
'Romania took note of the aims and action plan agreed upon during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington as well as of the voluntary national pledges made by the 30 participating states. This way I want to state again the pledges made by Romania at world level on observing the principles of nuclear non-proliferation as well as the nuclear security and safety requirements,' the Presidential Administration quotes Basescu as saying in his speech given during the first session of the Summit.
He made it clear that Romania had a responsible policy of preventing and combating the use of nuclear materials and radioactive sources for destructive purposes.
'At the same time [Romania] gets involved in the international cooperation for taking up the existing legal framework to an extent as large as possible at world level, for making the exchange of good practices in nuclear security and for granting specialist assistance. The accident in Fukushima sounded the alarm for strengthening the safety standards used for nuclear power stations so that people's life and health should be protected and the integrity of the environment should be secured,' said the Head of State.
He appreciated that by a strict policy of nuclear safety they would be able to build again the confidence of societies in the alternative that is quite efficient ecologically and economically, namely the electric energy from nuclear sources.
'In its capacity as a NATO member state Romania thinks that one must correlate the achievement of the visionary aim of a world without nuclear weapons, in keeping with the spirit of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the statements made by President Obama, with the NATO nuclear policy, according to which the Alliance will have to preserve its nuclear capacities as long as weapons of this kind continue to exist. This is an additional guarantee of ensuring security to all the member states of the Alliance,' said Romania's President.
He made it clear that in point of the UN legal framework when it comes to nuclear security, it is to be found in Romania's domestic legislation and is thus part of the national policy in the field.
'Romania is a party to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and to the amendment to this convention, namely the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, and made its decisive contribution in its capacity as president of the UN Security Council to adopting Resolution 1540 (2004). Romania also supports the enforcement of Resolution 1977 (2011) and is currently revising its national practices and the regulating framework for it to reflect the requirements of the latest documents of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] on the physical protection of the nuclear material,' added President Basescu.
According to him, Romania has put into practice the guidelines for nuclear security included in several series of IAEA publications.
'When it comes to other multilateral initiatives, Romania participates in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. In tomorrow's session I am going to make a presentation of the Romanian policy in the field of nuclear security,' Basescu said at the end of his speech.
President Traian Basescu on March 26 and 27, in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, attends the second Nuclear Security Summit at the invitation of his Korean counterpart, President Lee Myung-bak.