US President Barack Obama set out his vision and strategy for ridding the world of nuclear weapons yesterday, vowing to involve all states with atomic weapons in the process of reducing arsenals.
Obama made it clear the US would still go ahead with plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe.
However, he said the driving force for this would be removed if the nuclear threat from Iran were eliminated.
PHOTO: AFP
Visiting the Czech capital on a trip marking his presidential debut on the world stage, Obama committed himself to reducing the US nuclear arsenal, bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force and seeking tough penalties for countries that broke the rules on non-proliferation.
“The United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons,” he told a cheering crowd of more than 20,000 in Hradcanske Square outside the medieval Prague Castle.
“To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same,” Obama said, adding: “We will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.”
MISSILE SHIELD
The Czech Republic is one of two sites in eastern Europe earmarked for the planned US missile shield, which has angered Russia.
Former US president George W. Bush said the shield was necessary to counter threats from what he called rogue states such as Iran. The new administration has been less assertive in pushing the plan but has kept it alive for now.
In yesterday’s speech, Obama presented Iran — which he has sought to engage diplomatically — with a “clear choice” of halting its nuclear and ballistic missile activity or facing increased international isolation.
“As long as the threat from Iran persists, we intend to go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven,” he said. “If the Iranian threat is eliminated, we will have a stronger basis for security and the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe at this time will be removed.”
Iran says it wants nuclear technology to generate electricity, not to use for weapons.
Sounding a note of realism, Obama said he did not expect overnight success in efforts to rid the world of nuclear arms.
“As long as these weapons exist, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary, and guarantee that defense to our allies,” he said.
Obama said he would host a summit within a year on global nuclear security, covering issues such as preventing the smuggling of nuclear material and keeping atomic weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
PLEDGE
On Wednesday, Obama met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of a G20 economic summit, where the two leaders pledged to pursue a new deal to cut nuclear warheads.
The call for renewed efforts to achieve global nuclear disarmament was expected to resonate in Europe, where anti-war sentiment had traditionally been strong because of its proximity to the Soviet bloc and the front line of the Cold War.
Earlier, Gary Samore, White House coordinator for arms control, said that yesterday’s North Korean rocket launch meant missile defense would remain a priority.
“The North Korean test illustrates the importance of continuing to develop missile defense in order to protect ... both the country and our allies in Asia,” Samore told reporters.
In Prague, Obama also planned to discuss climate change and energy security with the leaders of the 27 EU countries at a summit hosted by the Czech EU presidency.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has