Manmohan Singh arrives in Seoul to attend nuclear safety summit

Seoul (South Korea), mar.24 (ANI): Indian Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh has reached Seoul to attend the Nuclear Safety Summit. He landed at a Seoul airbase and was recieved by South Korea's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kim Sing Han.

Singh will join 57 world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the global threat posed by nuclear terrorism and the measures required to prevent terrorists from gaining access to sensitive nuclear material and technologies.

In his departure statement, Singh called for maintaining the highest levels of nuclear security and safety to retain public support for harnessing the benefits of atomic energy.

While in Seoul, Singh will hold a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and would also meet South Korean business honchos on Sunday.

During the nuclear safety summit, head of states would discuss steps to prevent nuclear fissile material falling into rogue hands and the fallout of Fukushima disaster in Japan last March.

The summit is taking place in the backdrop of ongoing protests in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, over the safety of a proposed 1000 megawatt plant.

India is on record as saying that it has big concerns over the "insiders" threat to the safety of Pakistan's nuclear programme. There are global fears that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal could fall into the hands of militants.

The summit is also being attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

During his stay in Seoul, Singh will have pull aside meetings with his Italian and Norwegian counterparts Mario Monty and jens Stoltenberg.

Leaders of Australia, Japan, Indonesia, France, Pakistan, Israel, the United Nations and the European Union, will also be attending the summit alongwith Deputy Prime Ministers or Foreign Ministers of 13 countries.

The focus of the summit is on converting the highly enriched uranium-based reactors to use low enriched uranium of nuclear power plants, prevent illicit trafficking of nuclear fissile material, provide radiological security and create an interface between nuclear safety and security. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)