Sanctions yes, but no expulsion of Russia from the G8, which in any case will not have to be held in Sochi. This is the position of the president of the United States, Barack Obama, who is in The Hague with the other leaders of the major world powers to participate in the summit on nuclear security and the G7 on Ukraine.
This morning, after meeting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Obama had assured that the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the United States and the European Union "will have a cost for the Russian economy", while in an interview with the newspaper De Volkskrant he had issued a warning: "If Russia continues to escalate, we must be ready to impose a higher cost on it".
Meanwhile, on the nuclear front, an important agreement was reached today. Japan will deliver more than 315 kilograms of nuclear weapons and stockpiles of enriched uranium to the United States: the decision was announced by officials of the two countries from The Hague and represents a victory for Obama, who has long been fighting to secure the arsenals of the various nations of the world.
“Today's represents an important commitment for nuclear energy – said the US Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz -. The material will be transferred to the United States to be transformed” into a form that resists nuclear proliferation. Japan had received this material in the 60s from the US and UK for research purposes.
The summit, which is part of a process launched by Obama in 2009, focused not only on atomic bombs, but above all on the effort to reduce nuclear material, which if it ends up in the hands of terrorists could be used to build weapons. The number of countries that have these reserves since 2009 has increased from 39 to 25.
The summit in The Hague (which will continue tomorrow) hosts the leaders and officials of 53 nations and tomorrow should release new data to take stock of the situation and announce the intentions to arrive at the final meeting expected in Washington in 2016.
