MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Thursday, leaders from more than 50 countries will take part in the fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC that will last until Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined to attend.
"American organizers of the summit pushed us towards a negative decision themselves when, without consulting anybody, they drastically changed the rules of the preparatory work. They decided to create five working groups, offering each of the invited states to choose one of them…Only the US, South Korea and the Netherlands as the host-states of previous such meetings had the opportunity to track and influence the preparatory work in all of the working groups," Ulyanov explained.
The Russian official stressed that Russia cannon approve, especially on a high level, documents that are being worked out without its participation. He said that the preparatory groups were to work out the course of action with respect to nuclear security for the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Interpol and other organizations.
"For those who were not invited to Washington for some reason this can be perceived as an attempt of a small group of countries to impose their agenda on international structures with a far wider membership," Ulyanov said emphasizing that it is "not very democratic and does not correspond to the norms of international practice."
Dozens of world leaders, including from Japan, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom, will discuss international actions to strengthen nuclear security, reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism, as well as the ongoing campaign to combat the Daesh terrorist group at the upcoming fourth Nuclear Security Summit in Washington on March 31- April 1.
The summit is aimed at finding ways to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, as well as to promote the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
