US president calls for nuclear-free world

US President Barack Obama has called on the international community to cooperate in building a world without nuclear weapons. Speaking in Prague on his maiden tour of Europe, Mr. Obama said that the Cold War was over and it was time to face a new threat – that of a nuclear attack. He said that while the threat of a nuclear war had gone down, the threat of a nuclear attack had gone up. The US president said his country was ready to lead such an international endeavor by pursuing a new deal with Russia to cut nuclear warheads and seeking a new international treaty to end production of fissile materials for nuclear arms. Mr. Obama stressed the need to bring the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force and seek tough penalties for nuclear proliferators. He said North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket over Japan on Sunday was proof of the urgency of these goals and called on Pyongyang to abandon its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

Addressing the issue of nuclear missile defense, the US president said that as long as the threat from Iran persisted America would go forward with the missile defense system. On the contrary, if the Iranian threat were eliminated, he said the driving force for missile defense construction in Europe would be removed.