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TRANSCRIPT: Medvedev news conference following the Nuclear Security Summit
kremlin.ru - 3.27.12 - JRL 2012-59

Seoul

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon.

The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit is about to end. All of you are familiar with its agenda.

Russian Nuclear Plant File Photo
file photo
On the eve of the summit, I held several important meetings: I met with President of the United States Barack Obama; I met with President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak, whom I told today that the summit's organisation was excellent. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Korean partners for organising the event and for its content, because a great deal depends on the host country.

In addition, as is usually the case, several meetings were held on the summit's sidelines. Apart from the leadership of the United States and the Republic of Korea, I also met with the King of Jordan, the Prime Minister of Turkey and the Prime Minister of Italy, and had brief exchanges with several other colleagues.

The Seoul Summit is the second after the summit in Washington. I can say that overall I am satisfied with its outcome, because the issues are very complicated, and we cannot expect to resolve all the problems in just a few meetings. However, we did not just exchange views; we found a number of specific solutions that will allow us to build more effective cooperation in the field of nuclear security.

In addition, today we made an extremely useful joint statement with the President of Kazakhstan and President of the United States on the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. This is a truly positive example of trilateral cooperation that encapsulates the idea of the summit and its agenda.

Despite the tragedy at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan, most countries today come to the conclusion that the use of nuclear technology and materials is inevitable; they need to be improved but there can be no progress for the humanity without using them. This technology is in great demand in a wide range of areas. Naturally, we must ensure the physical and technological security of nuclear facilities, which we have been discussing over these past two days, including their security on a global scale.

Russian Nuclear Plant File PhotoI would like to remind you what we have done in this area. We have initiated the development of a new regulatory framework, modernisation of existing conventions, including the Convention on Nuclear Safety and the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident, and were the authors of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

What, in my view, is the main problem today? We have a quality regulatory framework but not everyone has been quick to ratify and adopt it, including the most advanced states in the field of nuclear technology. I understand that this may limit their freedom to a certain extent and it clearly raises the bar for technological expectations and the amount of money that needs to be invested, but we have already started this process. That is why I believe that our nuclear power is the most advanced in the world and why we have been of