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Kerry Applauds Passage Of United Nations' Nuclear Proliferation Resolution

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement commending the United Nations Security Council's unanimous adoption of a nonproliferation and disarmament resolution:

"I commend the President for reasserting American leadership on the vital issue of nuclear nonproliferation and for securing unanimous Security Council approval of an important resolution. The world has long looked to our nation to lead in combating nuclear proliferation, and today's action by the Security Council demonstrates the concrete benefits to our own nation's security that can be achieved when the United States takes up that mantle of leadership.

"With this resolution the Security Council has called upon all states to follow the United States' lead and take on the goal of securing all of the world's vulnerable nuclear material in four years. It has also put governments of the world on notice that the international community will not tolerate cynical efforts to take advantage of the rights to peaceful nuclear energy that are enshrined in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)in the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"I am especially pleased that the Security Council has called upon states to adopt stricter export controls over sensitive nuclear equipment and technology, will address any move by a state to withdraw from the NPT, and has affirmed that a state that withdraws from the NPT remains responsible for any violations of the Treaty that it committed before withdrawal."

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