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International Response: G-8 Ministers Pledge to Prevent WMD Terrorism Foreign ministers of the world’s top eight industrial nations ended two days of talks yesterday with a pledge to renew and increase efforts to prevent terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, May 14). “Of particular concern to us is the emerging threat of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction,” Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, chairman of the G-8 conference, held at a ski resort in western Canada, said. “We must step up and coordinate our efforts to make sure that terrorists do not get their hands [on] these deadly weapons” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo.com, June 14). The foreign ministers from the Group of Eight nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — called on countries to criminalize the offenses listed in the Biological Weapons Convention and to prosecute or extradite individuals who have committed such crimes. The G-8 states also said they would develop measures to prevent and track illegal biological agents domestically and internationally (see GSN, April 29). The states said they would work within the United Nations to complete work on the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and called on other countries to do the same. They also pledged support for efforts to strengthen the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and to develop new measures to prevent nuclear smuggling (G-8 release I, June 13). The assembled members of the conference also reaffirmed the importance of reducing stockpiles of weapon-grade plutonium, Graham said in a press statement (see GSN, May 31). Donors are completing negotiations to create a multilateral framework for Russia’s plutonium disposal program by 2003, he added (G-8 release II, June 13). The G-8 members said they would encourage international efforts to protect biological, chemical, nuclear, radiological and related facilities against terrorist attacks and would continue to support WMD prevention programs, such as the those of the International Atomic Energy Agency. They also recommended developing guidelines for contingency planning at national levels for a terrorist WMD attack and for improving existing crisis response arrangements (G-8 release I). For further information, see: Biological Weapons Convention States Parties (U.S. State Department) Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material Text IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
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