GMA to attend nuclear security summit

WASHINGTON – President Arroyo will join leaders and top officials from 47 nations in a two-day nuclear security summit in Washington starting Monday in what is likely to be her last major diplomatic hurrah before stepping down from office in June. 

Diplomatic observers said she had expected to end her term with a flourish by signing, on the sidelines of the summit, a multi-million development aid with the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to alleviate poverty in the Philippines.

But MCC last month surprisingly deferred final consideration of the aid agreement until after the May elections, dashing her hopes and sending her diplomats here in a deep funk. 

“The MCC, probably afraid she would go on a spending spree with the money, decided at the last minute to postpone it and wait for her successor to sign the agreement,“ The Manila Mail said in a commentary.

The fortnightly newspaper, which circulates in the Washington DC metropolitan area, said Arroyo had been lobbying for years for the MCC grants and the signing of an agreement would have been a major victory for her.

“She is said to be bristling, angry and mad, that the signing ceremony that was being prepared for her went kaput,” the newspaper said.

Arroyo has been to Washington numerous times – once on a state visit in 2003 at the invitation of President George W. Bush and in July 2009 on an official visit at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

In contrast to her previous trips here, this time around Arroyo’s visit will be relatively low key and there are no plans for her to meet the Filipino community.  

“There’s just not enough time because she’ll be in Washington barely 24 hours,“ said acting deputy chief of mission Maria Andrelita Austria. 

For her work on the Coral Triangle initiative, Arroyo will receive an award from the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, a bipartisan US Congressional forum that seeks to advance global conservation of natural resources, Austria said. 

Previous recipients of the Teddy Roosevelt International Conservation Award have included Prince Albert of Monaco and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Austria said upon arrival on Monday, President Arroyo will literally head straight to the summit convention center for a working dinner among conference participants.

Obama first proposed the summit during a speech in Prague last year where he outlined his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats. 

He called for a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world, break up black markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial tools to disrupt illicit trade in nuclear materials and technologies. 

Summit participants are likely to concentrate on finding ways to secure nuclear materials to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on so-called “dirty nukes“ or “suitcase bombs,” the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.

The White House has listed the 47 nations expected to attend the summit, including Australia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Britain. 

Many of the countries on the guest list do not have nuclear weapons, but Obama is planning one-on-one meetings with leaders of those that do, including China, India and Pakistan. – With Pia Lee-Brago