Post date: Mar 25, 2012 9:56:15 PM
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (MARCH 25, 2012) (KOREA HOST BROADCASTER) - World leaders began to gather in South Korea on Sunday (March 25), host of a summit on nuclear non-proliferation.
The leaders of Chile, Australia, Nigeria and Pakistan arrive in Seoul on the eve of a nuclear security summit, a follow-up to an inaugural meeting hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2010.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera touched down with his wife in Seoul, on the second leg of his Asia tour which will also take in Vietnam and Japan.
Pinera will join leaders from more than 50 countries for two-day meet which gets started on Monday (March 26) and will focus on measures to protect nuclear materials and facilities and to prevent illicit trafficking.
North Korea will not attend the summit and its pursuit of a nuclear and ballistic missile programme is not on the formal agenda, but the announcement of a long-range rocket launch in April by the North is now expected to take centre stage.
For Australian Prime Minister Gillard, the threat of nuclear terrorism will be the focus of her talks with other world leaders at the summit, according to local media reports.
Gillard is also expected to hold a bilateral with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to broach the issue of a possible free trade agreement.
The Australian leader will also meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the sidelines of the summit before returning to Australia on Wednesday (March 28).
Nigerian President Jonathan also arrived on the eve of the summit, on the sidelines of which he will hold bilateral talks with other world leaders and meet with representatives of the Nigerian community in South Korea.
Nuclear power has faced increased opposition in some nations since an earthquake and tsunami damaged Japan's Fukushima nuclear facility in March. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has since announced it will exit atomic power and authorities worldwide have kicked off safety checks on nuclear power plants.
However, Jonathan revived the country's Atomic Energy Commission last year, to push ahead with plans to develop nuclear power in Africa's most populous nation to ease the lingering power shortage problem.
For Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani, the summit provides a rare opportunity to repair ties with his old ally the United States.
Gilani will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday (March 27) on the sidelines of the Seoul summit, the prime minister's office said on Friday (March 23).
Relations between the two uneasy allies have been frayed after the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and the mistakened attack by NATO aircraft on two Pakistani border posts.
Pakistan has the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world, with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimating that it could number between 150-200 warheads in a decade, making its arsenal larger than Britain's.
Wednesday's meeting would be the highest-level meeting between the two uneasy allies since the bin Laden raid.
A proposed meeting between Gilani and Obama in New York at the United Nations in September was called off at the last minute after Obama reportedly refused to meet with him.
The last such high-level meeting was in January 2011, when President Asif Ali Zardari visited the White House.