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Foreign minister calls for nuclear security

Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter has called for a reduction of nuclear weapons at an international security summit in the Korean capital, Seoul.

Speaking on Tuesday, Burkhalter said that if the risk of nuclear terrorism was to be avoided, it was necessary “to do everything possible to reduce the sources of such an act”.

He added that nuclear disarmament should be considered one solution to the problem, even if it was not on the summit agenda.

The foreign minister also called on states to ratify the amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, which heightens security for nuclear facilities.

He said that all the stakeholders of the nuclear security issue should make full use of all the instruments available to them, the main goal being “ a real improvement of human security”.

The two-day Seoul summit aimed to renew the political commitments made at a 2010 meeting in Washington that included strengthening nuclear security, reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism, and preventing terrorists, criminals, or other unauthorised actors from acquiring nuclear materials.

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