In Egypt more than 1,500 public and private business delegates and state leaders agreed on 20-21 February to mobilise massive investments for the implementation of Africa’s largest trading bloc whichwas created last year by 26 African countries with a total of 620 million consumers and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) nearing 1,2 trillion dollars.

The agreement crowned the “Africa 2016” investment forum held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort Sharm El Sheikh with the participation of business leaders together with government officials and heads of international organisations to discuss trade and investment as engines of progress. African heads of state and government from Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan and Togo took part in the forum.

Courtesy of the African Union Commission

No official figures relating to the amount of these investments have been released. “They (the private business sector) are ready to invest. Africa is the continent of the future, this is clear. However, there are huge hurdles that have been ‘scaring’ the big business pundits,” an Egyptian diplomat commented to IPS on condition of anonymity.

Titanic Efforts

“African governments must make titanic efforts to ensure the right atmosphere needed to attract investors; adopt the necessary legislative measures to facilitate business activities; combat rampant corruption and eliminate bureaucratic obstacles; reform their financial systems to facilitate re-exporting capitals and benefits… not to mention democratic governance and preventing and ending so many armed conflicts…”

Corruption comes first on the list of impediments to investment along with instability, the source said. Studies by the World Bank, the UN Development Programme and Transparency International confirm that Africa is still the most corrupt region in the world and that it has failed to solve the problem.

“Without all that there will be meetings and more meetings, but decisions will not find their way to implementation. The volume of trade between African countries does not exceed 10 per cent of the continent’s foreign trade, and will not increase unless tariff barriers are reformed and needed infrastructure is built, such as roads and ports to transport goods, among other,” said the diplomat who was a member of the Egyptian delegation of the the Sharm El Sheikh Africa 2016 forum.

Along with the installation of giant power generation plants, a 7.000-kilometres-long Cairo-Cape Town railways line is among the large projects that attract private investors.

“Development Is No Longer a Dream”

“Times have changed in Africa,” says the Business for Africa Forum‘s concept document which was submitted to the meeting.

With interest in the continent growing exponentially, some of today’s newest business players are originating from non-traditional regions such as South America, Eastern Europe, the Gulf, and Africa itself, it adds.

“While well-established and new partners from Europe, North America, and Asia continue to be valued, it is interesting to note that the private sector’s scope of attention is increasingly widening to include, especially among new-comers, consumer-market industries including food, IT, tourism, finance, and retail.”

According to Business for Africa Forum, those who have been paying attention to Africa have seen these amassing figures: a GDP in excess of 2 trillion dollars; a growing middle class of over 313 million consumers, and consumer spending breaking through the one trillion dollar mark and projected to reach 1.4 trillion dollars by 2020.

Also a labour force estimated at 382 million people and expected to grow to over 500 million by 2020, and the youngest population in the world, which tomorrow will yield the lowest dependents to workers ratio in the world.

Regional integration and favourable trade agreements between African countries continue to be critical to this process.

The landmark tripartite agreement between COMESA (CommonMarket for Eastern and Southern Africa, 19 countries); SADC (Southern African Development Community, 15 countries) and the EAC (East African Community, 5 countries), which was launched in Sharm El Sheikh in June 2015 creating the biggest trading block in Africa, with 26 out of the 54 African Union member countries, and a market of close to 620 million consumers, equivalent to 50 per cent of Africa’s over 1,2 billion inhabitants.

Africa has been registering one of the highest annual economic growth rates, between 2 per cent and 11 per cent, making an average of 7 per cent.

Egypt, which co-organised the forum with the AU, COMESA, SADC and EAC , has a privileged position between Europe, the Gulf, Asia, and Africa, with 8 per cent of global sea-borne trade between the East and the West passing through the Suez Canal, a percentage which is expected to grow with the new Suez Canal Regional Development Project.

“Africa 2016” brought together high-level investment representatives interested in African business opportunities in the sectors of energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), financial services, trade, agribusiness, health care, and pharmaceuticals.

”Continental Free Africa Trade“

The Africa 2016 Forum has marked a step further towards the implementation of the the goals adopted during the January 2012 African Union Summit which focused on the theme of “Boosting Intra-Africa Trade”, as part of the heads of state and government decision to establish a Continental Free Trade Area.

The African Union’s Program on Boosting Intra-African Trade is mainly based on these key pillars:

1. Trade is widely accepted as an important engine of economic growth and development. There are many regions and countries of the world that have been able to lift their people from poverty to prosperity through trade.

In Africa, however, trade has not served as a potent instrument for the achievement of rapid and sustainable economic growth and development due mainly to three interrelated basic features: size, structure, and direction. At around 3 per cent the share of Africa in global trade is insignificant.

2. Africa’s trade is its high external orientation and relatively low level of intra-regional trade.

Intra-African trade stands at around 13 per cent compared to approximately 60 per cent, 40 per cent, 30 per cent, intra-regional trade that has been achieved by Europe, North America, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN, 10 countries) respectively.

Even if allowance is made for Africa’s unrecorded informal cross-border trade, the total level of intra-African trade is not likely to be more than 20 per cent, which is still lower than that of other major regions of the world.

3. That African countries do not trade much with each other has meant that they have been unable to fully harness the synergies and complementarities of their economies and take full advantage of the economies of scale and other benefits (such as income and employment generation) that greater market integration would have provided.

There are cases where products and services could have been sourced competitively from other African countries but were procured from outside the continent.

4. Due to the fact that Africa does the bulk of its trade with the outside world and the exports are heavily concentrated on primary commodities, the continent has been particularly vulnerable to external macroeconomic shocks and protectionist trade policies. This is evident from the recent global economic and financial crisis which, although not of the making of African countries, has had adverse impact on the continents economic performance.

Thus a major lesson to be drawn from the systemic shocks in the global economy is the need for Africa to promote intra-regional trade.

5. Boosting intra-African trade and deepening regional market integration constitute a necessary response to the challenges facing Africa in the multilateral trading system and the global economy. The boosting of intra-African trade and the deepening of Africa’s market integration, by fostering competition among African countries, will assist in enhancing their capacity and prepare them to compete more effectively on the global market.

6. The Action Plan for Boosting Intra-Africa Trade specifically aims at deepening Africans market integration and significantly increasing the volume of trade that African countries undertake among themselves.

To effectively achieve this, the plan is divided into seven clusters namely, Trade Facilitation, Trade Policy, Productive capacities, Trade related Infrastructure, Trade Finance, Trade Information and Factor Market integration.

The African leaders, in their 2012 summit in Addis Ababa, decided to establish a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by an indicative date of 2017.

The CFTA will bring together fifty-four African countries with a combined population of more than 1,2 billion people and a combined gross domestic product of more than 3.4 trillion dollars.

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The decision by the oil-rich United Arab Emirates to build nuclear reactors has unleashed frenetic, politically backed competition between giant corporations from France, the U.S., Japan and South Korea to win contracts estimated at more than 40 billion dollars.

This may lead to a nuclear race involving other Gulf Arab states.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan signed a new law Oct. 4 to regulate production and development of nuclear energy in the federation of seven emirates that he chairs.

UAE authorities were quick to announce that the nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. “The UAE’s nuclear programme is a peaceful project based on its commitment not to enrich uranium, and its ability to achieve the necessary degree of fuel security through a strong infrastructure,” UAE special representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Hamad Al-Kaabi told reporters.

Kaabi said the UAE has set up a Federal Authority of Nuclear Regulation to promote safety, security and radiological protection, with former IAEA technical adviser William Travers as director-general.

He declined to say how many reactors the UAE intends to build. The UAE nuclear plants are scheduled to be operational in 2017.

The UAE, a leading oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia and Russia, is signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Seemingly standard competition among big corporations to win a multi- billion bid, the UAE nuclear programme has unleashed a tough political race, where France apparently has the upper hand.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy co-chaired the inauguration of the first French military base in the UAE in May, in what is considered a long step forward to integrate the oil-rich Gulf region – so far a sort of U.S. ‘protectorate’ – into French security strategies.

Sarkozy is reportedly promoting French companies for the UAE nuclear deal. A consortium formed by Areva, TOTAL and Suez-Gaz de France is leading the race to construct the first nuclear reactor in an Arab country.

Other major competitors are a U.S.-Japanese bid by Hitachi and General Electric; the South Korean Hyundai-Samsung; and Westinghouse from the U.S. A nuclear cooperation agreement between the U.S. and the UAE was signed in January in the last days of the Bush administration.

The U.S. business sector has been seeking the support of neo-conservative political groups to push its case, as a number of Congressmen raised objections that “components” may fall in the hands of Iran. Another Western fear is that nuclear material could fall into the hands of terrorist groups.

Concerns were also raised that the UAE plans may lead to a nuclear race in the Middle East.

“Amid the gathering storm over Iran’s controversial nuclear ambitions, the race is on among Arab states to build nuclear power plants of their own, opening up immense trade opportunities for the industrialised world as well as the specter of proliferation,” the United Press International wrote Sep. 9.

The U.S., Britain, France and Russia “are competing for contracts in the nuclear energy bonanza that is emerging in the Middle East as Arab states seek to generate more power to feed their growing economies and to build desalination plants, a vital element in development plans as water resources shrink,” UPI added in its comment.

The French government has reportedly promised assistance to Qatar and Morocco to launch nuclear programmes.

Egypt and Jordan have plans to build nuclear plans. Egypt signed a cooperation agreement with Russia last year.

“It is clear that an Iranian nuclear weapon programme would spur a regional arms race, involving the acquisition of nuclear arms by other regional powers like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Turkey,” Mahtab Alam Rizvi, research assistant at the New Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses wrote last March.

Saudi Arabia had already announced plans to pursue peaceful nuclear technology as a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), he wrote. “The Saudis, along with their fellow GCC members recently announced a plan to create a body that would provide enriched uranium to the states of the Middle East,” Rizvi pointed out.

Rizvi said that if other states in the Middle East that have expressed an interest in nuclear energy follow through with their proposed plans, “the potential for increased instability in the region could have a detrimental effect on the price of oil in the region.”

The UAE stresses that its nuclear facilities would be safe. The UAE state-run news agency WAM declared Oct. 6 that the UAE “yet again shows the way ahead to others.”

The same day, the Gulf News daily wrote: “This is the key to UAE’s trail- blazing nuclear strategy, which is based on the premise that it wants the power from the nuclear stations but does not want to deal with the fuel.

“It has contributed to setting up a new UN agency which will handle all fuel enrichment and processing. This means that the UAE can never fall under suspicion of misusing this nuclear material, and has helped set up a system that many other would-be nuclear states will be able to follow.

The editorial warned, however, that the dangers from proliferation of nuclear weapons are serious. “It is essential to stop the possibility that the material for a weapon of mass destruction could end up in the hands of an irresponsible government, or be passed on to a terrorist group.”

The Khaleej Times wrote in an editorial: “What is remarkable is the UAE’s resolve to keep its nuclear power programme totally above board and beyond the pale of all controversies and disputes.

“(With) the crucial policy decision by UAE, seeking civilian nuclear option mostly for generating electricity and yet avoiding the critical enrichment process, the UAE has once again shown the way forward to others in the region.”

The London-based World Nuclear Association (WNA) that promotes nuclear energy and supports companies in global nuclear industry, said the UAE law aims to “promote the highest standards of nuclear safety, nuclear security and radiological protection.”

The U.S. will have the right to cancel any agreement if the UAE reneges on its commitment not to engage in enrichment or reprocessing, it said.

The WNA stressed that the UAE law provides for harsh civil and criminal penalties for unauthorised use, theft, transport or trade in nuclear materials.

The WNA says the UAE has plans for three reactors to be online by 2020, and has signed cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding with companies in France, the UK and the U.S.

*This article is part of an IPS-Soka Gakkai International (SGI) project on nuclear abolition. The writer is a correspondent of the IDN-InDepthNews service.

Africa, the second-largest continent after Asia, has now become the world’s largest nuclear-free zone comprising 53 countries with about a billion people. This means denuclearisation of one of the richest uranium producing regions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the African Union (AU) announced mid-August that the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) Treaty has come into force.

This was after Burundi became the 28th African state to ratify the treat Jul. 15. Algeria and Burkina Faso were the first African countries to ratify it in 1998, two years after its signature.

Its entry comes amidst reports of intensive exploitation of uranium mines in Africa by European and Chinese-backed multinational corporations. It now ensures that the southern hemisphere is now free of nuclear weapons.

Under the treaty all parties are required to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements with the IAEA. These agreements are equivalent to those required under the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

The treaty also commits its parties “to apply the highest standard of security and physical protection of nuclear material, facilities, and equipment to prevent theft and unauthorised use, as well as prohibits armed attacks against nuclear installations within the zone.”

The treaty officially declares Africa a nuclear weapons free zone. It was drafted in Johannesburg and Pelindaba in June 1995, and opened for signature in Cairo Apr. 11, 1996.

The treaty is also called the Treaty of Pelindaba after the Pelindaba nuclear research facility near the Hartbeespoort dam west of Pretoria in South Africa. Pelindaba is South Africa’s main nuclear research centre run by the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa. This is where South Africa’s atomic bombs were built and stored in the 1970s.

“The African NWFZ, similar to other nuclear weapons free zones in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, South Pacific and Central Asia, is an important regional confidence and security-building measure and would contribute to our efforts for a world free from nuclear weapons,” said IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

He said the IAEA welcomed the treaty’s support of “the use of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes, and trusts that the use of nuclear technologies in Africa would contribute to the continent’s economic and social development.”

The process of declaring Africa a nuclear weapons free zone was launched at the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU) heads of state and government meeting in Cairo in 1964. The African leaders declared their readiness “to undertake, through an international agreement to be concluded under United Nations auspices, not to manufacture or acquire control of nuclear weapons.”

The leaders based their position on international agreements such as the UN General Assembly resolution of Dec. 11, 1975 that considered “nuclear- weapon-free zones one of the most effective means for preventing the proliferation, both horizontal and vertical, of nuclear weapons.”

The African leaders agreed “the need to take all steps in achieving the ultimate goal of a world entirely free of nuclear weapons, as well as of the obligations of all states to contribute to this end.”

They said “the African nuclear-weapon-free zone will constitute an important step towards strengthening the non-proliferation regime, promoting cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, promoting general and complete disarmament and enhancing regional and international peace and security.”

The African leaders said an “African nuclear-weapon-free zone will protect African states against possible nuclear attacks on their territories.” It would also “keep Africa free of environmental pollution by radioactive wastes and other radioactive matter.” The treaty commits members not to dump nuclear waste.

But the leaders also expressed their support for Article 4 of the NPT that recognises “the inalienable right of all states parties to develop research on production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination.”

The leaders agreed to promote regional cooperation for the development and practical application of nuclear energy.

Africa has some of the richest uranium mines. Many industrialised countries depend on uranium from Africa. France relies entirely on uranium exploitation in Niger to operate its 58 nuclear power plants.

Other uranium producers on the continent are Algeria, Botswana, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Africa is also reported to be one of the largest nuclear, radioactive and toxic waste-dumping sites, together with Southeast Asia. Somalia is reported to be a major nuclear waste dumping site.

Another treaty creating a zone free of nuclear weapons in Central Asia came into force Mar. 21 this year. Five countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – are parties to the treaty.

This treaty was the first of its kind comprising states of the former Soviet Union, and is the first such zone in the Northern Hemisphere. Each of the five states hosted former Soviet nuclear weapons infrastructure. They now confront common problems of environmental damage resulting from the production and testing of Soviet nuclear weapons.

Like the African Treaty, the Central Asian pact forbids development, manufacture, stockpiling, acquisition or possession of any nuclear explosive device within the zone.

Similar treaties are in force in South America (the treaty of Tlatelolco), the South Pacific (the treaty of Rarotonga), Southeast Asia (the treaty of Bangkok), and Antarctica (the Antarctic treaty).

(*This article is a part of an IPS-Soka Gakkai International (SGI) project on nuclear abolition. The writer is a correspondent of the IDN-InDepthNews service.)

The spectre of a U.S. nuclear umbrella for the Middle East haunted the U.S.- Egyptian summit this week. In the run-up to President Hosni Mubarak’s first Washington visit in five years, both the Egyptian leader and his senior aides categorically rejected an undeclared U.S. offer to guarantee defence of the region against atomic weapons as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan.

A nuclear umbrella is usually used for the security alliances of the United States with non-nuclear states such as Japan, South Korea, much of Europe, Turkey, Canada, and Australia, originating with the Cold War with the then Soviet Union. For some countries it was an alternative to acquiring nuclear weapons themselves.

According to knowledgeable sources, the Egyptian President insisted with President Barack Obama on Aug. 18 that “what the Middle East needs is peace, security, stability and development,” not nuclear weapons.

In doing so, Mubarak reaffirmed Egypt’s pledge underlying the country’s commitment since 1974 for the establishment of a “nuclear free Middle East”.

Pre-empting discussion on the issue, Mubarak said in an exclusive interview with the leading Egyptian daily Al-Ahram on Aug. 17 that “Egypt will not be part of any American nuclear umbrella intended to protect the Gulf countries.”

Such an umbrella, he said, “would imply accepting foreign troops and experts on our land – and we do not accept that.” Mubarak also emphasised that a U.S. nuclear umbrella “would imply an implicit acceptance that there is a regional nuclear power – we do not accept that either.”

The Egyptian president asserted that “the Middle East does not need any nuclear powers, be they Iran or Israel – what we need is peace, security, stability and development.” In any case, “we have not received any official communication regarding such a proposal,” he added.

On the same day, Suleiman Awad, spokesperson of the Egyptian Presidency, also commented on a U.S. nuclear umbrella in the region. “This is not the first time the issue is raised; it is part of the U.S. defence policy,” the presidential spokesperson said. “What is new is that it is raised now for the Middle East.”

At the height of the Sino-Indian war that coincided closely with the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962, the U.S. Administration under president John F. Kennedy made an informal offer of a nuclear umbrella to India at a time when the country felt constrained to seek U.S. military support to defend itself against China.

Commenting on alleged U.S. nuclear plans in the Middle East now, Awad said: “It is absolutely rejectable both in form and content. Instead of talking about a nuclear umbrella, the Iranian nuclear file should be dealt with (in a spirit of) dialogue and flexibility from both sides – the West, and Iran.”

He added: “Iran has the right to benefit from the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, like any other country signatory of the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty), provided that it proves that its programme is for peaceful uses.”

Mubarak’s spokesperson then underlined: “At the same time, this must be accompanied, simultaneously, by a serious move vis-à-vis Israel’s nuclear capacity, in order to avoid accusations of double standards.”

These remarks are in continuity with Egypt’s 35-year-long campaign aiming at the establishment of a “nuclear free Middle East”. In 1990, Mubarak revitalised the Egyptian initiative through a new, larger plan to declare the Middle East a “weapons of mass destruction free region”, including nuclear weapons.

The Egyptian initiative has drawn support from most Arab countries and has been recently reaffirmed by Amre Musa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, representing all the 22 Arab countries.

Musa declared on Jul. 5: “It is a must to free the Middle East of nuclear weapons.”

Arab support for the “nuclear free Middle East” initiative has gathered added strength particularly in the Gulf Arab countries in the wake of the U.S., Israel, and Europe alleging that Iran intends to build nuclear weapons.

Iran has systematically refuted these allegations, assuring that its nuclear programme is meant for peaceful use and nuclear power generation. The U.S., Israel and Europe are adamant that they will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

This avowal contrasts with the positions of Russia and China, who do not want a nuclear armed Iran but opt for other ways to prevent this from happening. The Arabs also have more doubts than certainty about Iran’s alleged intentions to development nuclear weapons.

The Western view has been implicitly challenged by the new Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano of Japan. He told reporters Jul. 3 after his appointment that he did not see “any hard evidence of Iran trying to gain the capability to develop nuclear arms.”

Asked by Reuters’ Sylvia Westall whether he believed Iran was seeking nuclear weapons capability, Amano, veteran diplomat and senior non-proliferation expert, said: “I don’t see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this.”

Two days later, in an exclusive interview with Kuwait daily Al-Anba’ on Jul. 5, the secretary general of the League of Arab States was asked whether Iran represented a “real threat” to the region. “There is no documented evidence (that proves) the existence of an Iranian military nuclear programme,” Musa replied.

“There is only one nuclear state (in the Middle East) that has nuclear weapons, and it is Israel,” the Arab League’s chief stressed.

Although it started developing nuclear weapons in the mid-sixties, Israel’s successive governments have systematically refused to deny or confirm the possession of a nuclear arsenal.

Nevertheless, the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI) ranks Israel as the sixth world nuclear power on the basis of the number of deployed nuclear warheads in January 2009.

According to SIPRI figures, Israel is second only to the bloc of the five UN Security Council permanent members (U.S., Russia, UK, France, China), with more deployed warheads (80) than India (60-70) and Pakistan (60).

North Korea is believed to have produced enough plutonium to build a small number of nuclear warheads, although it is unclear whether it has manufactured an operational weapon, says SIPRI.

Unlike the U.S., Russia, UK, France and China, Israel is not a signatory to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

However Israel is one of eight states which, as of January this year, possessed between them a total of more than 23,300 nuclear weapons, including operational warheads, spares, those in both active and inactive storage, and intact warheads scheduled for dismantlement, according to SIPRI.

“India and Pakistan, which along with Israel are de facto nuclear weapon states outside the NPT, continue to develop new missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons and are also expanding their capacities to produce fissile material,” SIPRI reports.

The SIPRI numbers have been questioned, however. For example, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter recently declared: “Israel has 150 nuclear warheads, or more.”

Prestigious Egyptian journalist, writer and political analyst Mohamed Hassanein Heykal, who served as a close advisor to late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, says that Israel has 200 nuclear warheads.

The U.S. based Arms Control Association (ACA), which was founded in 1971 as a non-partisan organisation dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies, estimates that Israel posses between 75 to 200 nuclear warheads.

Egyptian army intelligence sources estimate the number of Israeli nuclear warheads as ranging between 230 and 250.

Israel has never denied any of these reports and figures.

The Arab-backed Egyptian initiative is based on the fact that the sole nuclear threat in the Middle East is Israel.

A top Egyptian diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, told this reporter that Egyptian officials have always argued that the U.S. “lacks any legitimacy to demand Iran, which has not developed any nuclear weapon, halt its nuclear programme, while treating the only proved nuclear power in the region with silky hands.”

The source said “this argument was put on the table” by Mubarak during his meeting with Obama. “Egypt has always stated that had the U.S. pressed Israel to dismantle its nuclear weapons, it would have been now in a strong and legitimate position to stop any potential Iranian nuclear aspirations,” the source said.

The source recalled Arab League secretary general Musa’s recent statement that “it is a must to free the Middle East of nuclear weapons – the existence of Israeli nuclear weapons violates the non-proliferation principle and encourages others to have nuclear programmes.”

Hessam Zaki, spokesperson of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said earlier this month in a public statement that “Egypt has seized every possible opportunity to discuss, at all levels and in all meetings, that the Middle East should be declared a nuclear-free region.”

Egyptian officials point out that the U.S.-Egyptian summit has taken place at a point in time that seems appropriate to discuss nuclear disarmament. Obama promised in Prague last April to work for a world free of nuclear weapons.

On Jul. 6, the U.S. President signed an understanding with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow aimed at reducing a part of their stockpiles of nuclear weapons within seven years.

The Moscow understanding, which includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched missiles is supposed to replace the 1991 Start I (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I), which expires in December this year.

The White House meeting came also in the middle of a worldwide campaign to reduce nuclear arms as a critical step towards their total abolition, which Japan, the sole country that suffered the consequences of U.S. nuclear bombs in World War II, has been actively promoting.

The appointment of an anti-nuclear Japanese to lead the IAEA is expected to add to Japanese civil society efforts for a world free of nuclear weapons.

The 12 million members of non-governmental organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI) in 192 countries have embarked on a broad-based campaign for nuclear abolition. ‘The People’s Decade for Nuclear Abolition’ initiative created by SGI aims to rouse public opinion and help create a global grassroots network of people dedicated to abolishing nuclear weapons.

According to SGI president Daisaku Ikeda, “nuclear weapons embody an absolute evil that threatens humankind’s right to live.”

Another major world campaign for nuclear weapons reductions towards nuclear abolition, called Global Zero, was launched in Paris in December last year by 100 political, military, business, faith and civic leaders cutting across political lines.

Their purpose is to shore up the two major nuclear powers in their declared intention to achieve a comprehensive agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons worldwide through phased and verified reductions.

Global Zero is developing a step-by-step policy plan for the phased elimination of nuclear weapons, and is committed to building broad-based public support through worldwide media and online communications and civil society organisations.

The initiative’s signatories have announced that they will convene a Global Zero World Summit bringing together hundreds of leaders in early 2010, for abolition of what Global Zero campaigner Queen Nour of Jordan calls “the nuclear folly”.

(*This article is a part of an IPS-Soka Gakkai International (SGI) project on nuclear abolition. The writer is a correspondent of the IDN-InDepthNews service.)