Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins Speaks on Nuclear Security at VCDNP

On 11 April 2016, the VCDNP hosted Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs at the US State Department Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, for a seminar on the recently concluded Nuclear Security Summit process.

Ambassador Jenkins, in listing the many accomplishments of the six-year process, stressed that the Washington event that had just taken place (31 March to 1 April 2016) was not necessarily the last Summit, but only the "last in the current format". What came next, however, was still mostly unclear.

The focus of the Washington 2016 Summit had been one of transition, Ambassador Jenkins said. It had looked both at what achievements had been made since the first Summit in 2010, and how those achievements might be sustained going forward. She pointed in particular to the five "Action Plans" (for the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), INTERPOL, the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism and the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction) as vehicles for maintaining summit accomplishments, noting that sustainability would be at least partially achieved by strengthening international organizations such as the IAEA.

Ambassador Jenkins also discussed why, in her view, the Summit process had proved such a success. She referred to the leadership of President Obama, citing his vision of a nuclear weapon-free world articulated in Prague in 2009, and the supporting leadership of other countries involved in the Summit process. The Ambassador also noted the recognition early on in the Summit process that nuclear security was a shared global problem requiring States to work together. She praised the way in which countries had collaborated and compromised to reach agreement on the Summit communiqués that had been issued at each of the four events.

Looking ahead, Ambassador Jenkins spoke of the development of a "Contact Group", involving countries that had participated in the Summit process, to capitalize on efforts made and work to ensure that political momentum for improved nuclear security did not dissipate. This group, she suggested, might seek to hold annual meetings, but the mechanics of it were still under discussion, with much left to be determined.