You're reading: Belarus to destroy its highly-enriched uranium stocks by 2012

Belarus has decided to destroy all of its highly-enriched uranium stocks and is planning to carry this out by the next Nuclear Security Summit in 2012, Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said.

The United States is going to provide technical and financial aid for the swift completion of these measures, the U.S. and Belarus said in a joint statement adopted after Martynov’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Astana on Wednesday.

The U.S. State Secretary approved Belarus’s decision as a sign of progress in the efforts to strengthen nuclear security and nuclear non-proliferation and hailed the Republic of Korea’s plans to invite Belarus to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in 2012, the declaration said.

By making this decision, Belarus is joining the United States in international efforts to start powering nuclear installations with low-enriched uranium fuel that is becoming a global standard in the 21st century, the declaration said.

The parties agreed to continue the joint work of providing nuclear security, including efforts to raise the level of safety at the United Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research in Belarus, the declaration said.

The U.S. and Belarus reaffirmed their vision for a world without nuclear weapons and agreed to work together to prevent nuclear proliferation, it also said.

The U.S. State Secretary acknowledged Belarus’s historical decision of 1994 to renounce nuclear weapons as a significant contribution to the cause of nuclear disarmament and restated the security guarantees for Belarus, as provided in the Budapest memorandum of December 5, 1994, the declaration said.