35 countries attending the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit pledged to an initiative backed by the U.S. and South Korea that promotes transparency of nuclear resources to prevent nuclear terrorism, with the conspicuous absence of some of the world's largest nuclear powers: Russia, China, India, and Pakistan.

During the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, 35 out of 53 countries in attendance pledged to open up their security procedures to external checks on nuclear materials, and to adopt U.N. nuclear guidelines into respective national laws, in the name of creating internationally agreed upon legislature for dealing with nuclear terrorism.

A few countries, however, were blatantly absent from the initiative - Russia, China, India, and Pakistan. 

"The absence of Russia, China, Pakistan, and India - all nuclear weapons states with large amounts of nuclear material - as well as others… weakens the initiative's impact," said the Fissile Materials Working Group (FMWG), a coalition of anti-nuclear terrorism organizations.

Despite major nuclear weapons states being absent from the initiative, international nuclear security summits are reaching tangible results. 

This is the third summit held since the 2010 summit, during which Ukraine decided to remove all of its Highly Enriched Uranium (HEM), a dangerous substance with a history of being used by terrorist forces to build nuclear weapons.

In light of the Ukraine crisis and palpable tension between Russia and the West, the lack of HEM in Ukraine is a definite positive outcome of the nuclear summits.

Also Read: Ukraine Crisis Timeline: How It Unfolded

President Obama announced during a news conference that Ukraine's lack of UEM is a "vivid reminder that the more of this material we can secure, the safer all of our countries will be."

 

"Had that not happened, those dangerous nuclear materials would still be there now," said Obama. "And the difficult situation we are dealing with in Ukraine today would involve yet another level of concern."

 

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