2014 Nuclear Security Summit

2014 Nuclear Security Summit
Host countryNetherlands
DateMarch 24–25, 2014
Venue(s)World Forum
CitiesThe Hague
Participants58 representatives
Follows2012 Nuclear Security Summit
Precedes2016 Nuclear Security Summit
Websitenss2014.com
The World Forum in The Hague during the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit

The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit was a summit held in The Hague, the Netherlands, on March 24 and 25, 2014.[1] It was the third edition of the conference, succeeding the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit. The 2014 summit was attended by 58 world leaders (5 of which from observing international organizations), some 5,000 delegates and some 3,000 journalists.[2] The representatives attending the summit included US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The main goal of the conference was generally to improve international cooperation and more specifically to assess which of the objectives that were set at the previous summits in Washington, D.C., and Seoul had not been accomplished in the previous four years and proposing ways of achieving them.[3]

The Nuclear Security Summit aimed to prevent nuclear terrorism by:[1]

  1. reducing the amount of dangerous nuclear material in the world – especially highly enriched uranium
  2. improving the security of all nuclear material and radioactive sources
  3. improving international cooperation

Countries that participated were interested in leading a certain security theme to a higher level. They could do so by offering a "gift basket",[3] which is an extra initiative that can functioned as a role model for a specific security aspect (provided that it is supported by other countries). The Netherlands, for example, has been developing a gift basket that improves expertise and (international) cooperation regarding nuclear forensics with the help of the Netherlands Forensic Institute.

Although nuclear terrorism and its prevention to reduce and secure nuclear supplies are officially the main topic, the Ukraine crisis overshadowed the talks. The event formed the backdrop for an emergency meeting of G7 leaders on Russia's annexation of Crimea earlier in March 2014.[4][5] Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend, instead sending Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Rose Gottemoeller, the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Notable absentees from the summit were North Korea and Iran, excluded by mutual consent.

  1. ^ a b "Nuclear Security Summit 2014". NSS 2014. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  2. ^ "Nucleaire top in Den Haag: maatregelen en cijfers". Elsevier (in Dutch). January 27, 2014. Archived from the original on January 29, 2014. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  3. ^ a b "About the NSS". NSS 2014. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
  4. ^ "World leaders gather for Hague nuclear summit". The Washington Post. March 23, 2014. Archived from the original on March 24, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.
  5. ^ "Ukraine Crisis Threatens to Overshadow World Nuclear Summit". The Voice of America. March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2014.