Global Security Newswire

Japan is set to host a meeting this December to plan for a March 2010 Global Nuclear Security Summit planned by U.S. President Barack Obama, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Aug. 12).

Participants in the December meeting might consider issues to address during next year's session in Washington, one Japanese diplomatic insider said.

The 2010 summit is expected to address cooperative efforts to track and protect weapon-usable materials and to safeguard against nuclear terrorism.

Japan possesses deep know-how in civilian nuclear issues, U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration head Thomas D'Agostino said when he announced the planning conference yesterday. "I expect the world will have a greater opportunity to see this in December during the nuclear security summit preparation meeting that will be happening here in Japan," he said.

The U.S. official was in Japan to take part in a three-day, U.S.-sponsored meeting this week on bolstering the global nuclear nonproliferation architecture (Kyodo News/Breitbart.com, Oct. 27).