First Plenary Washington Nuclear Security Summit

Morning, 13 April 2010

Mr. President Barack Obama,
Excellencies,

Viet Nam highly values President Barack Obama’s initiative to convene the first Nuclear Security Summit. This is an important contribution to the common efforts of the international community to ensure nuclear security and safety.

We all agree that as more countries desire to develop civil nuclear programmes and threat of international terrorism increases, it becomes all the more urgent to ensure nuclear security. This is, first and foremost, the responsibility of each nation. Yet, closer international cooperation is also required.

Viet Nam strongly supports and actively contributes to the international community’s efforts in nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and countering terrorism in all forms while promoting the safe and secured use of nuclear energy for the benefits of all nations. We welcome the recent conclusion by the Russian Federation and the United States of the new START Treaty. This is indeed an important step forward in the common effort towards a nuclear-weapons-free world.

Viet Nam always places top priority to safety and security as it employs nuclear energy. As such, we have been proactive in the development and improvement of our legal framework and regulatory bodies to control and ensure the safety and security of the use of nuclear materials and radio-active substances. At the same time, Viet Nam has acceded to many important international treaties in this area. The Vietnamese Government has decided to accede to the Convention on Nuclear Safety and endorse the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. As Chair of ASEAN in 2010, Viet Nam is actively contributing to building a prosperous Southeast Asia free from nuclear weapons.

Viet Nam’s high sense responsibility is manifested in its participation in a large number of programmes and initiatives of the international community, including its cooperation with the IAEA, the U.S. and Russia on the conversion of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) in the nuclear reactor and with the EU, Japan and the U.S. in the installation of radiation monitoring gates at seaports in Viet Nam.

We are promoting the application of nuclear energy, and have embarked upon the programme for nuclear power development, thus attaching importance to and being ready to expand international cooperation in this field. To date, Viet Nam has signed bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with Russia, China, France, India, Republic of Korea, Argentina, and recently concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. on cooperation in this field.

Excellencies,

Vietnam supports the guidelines and measures enshrined in the draft documents of the Meeting. These include enhancing the effectiveness of the existing treaties, mechanisms and international organisations, upholding the responsibility of states and promoting the participation of the nuclear industry, organisations and individuals in accordance with each nation’s domestic laws and international obligations.

In addition, we wish to underline that it is necessary to take into account developing countries’ interest in the application of safe, secured and effective nuclear energy. We should also provide necessary resources for the IAEA to function as per the international community’s expectations.

We take this opportunity to sincerely thank the international community for the valuable support in our development of nuclear energy for development and peaceful purposes.

Thank you very much.

Remarks by H.E. Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam on National Actions to Secure Nuclear Material and Prevent Illicit Trafficking