DEUTSCHE WELLE: US President Barack Obama has announced ambitious plans to rid the world of nuclear weapons at a speech in Prague. Yet his support for a controversial US missile shield in Eastern Europe could anger Russia.
An estimated 30,000 people streamed into the historic center of Prague on Sunday to hear Obama deliver his first major public speech in Europe since becoming president. With Prague Castle as a backdrop, Obama proposed measures to eliminate existing nuclear weapons, stop further nuclear proliferation and prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons or materials. The US leader's speech comes as the Czech Republic marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism.
"As the only nuclear power who have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act," Obama said. "We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can start it."
Germany’s foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier has called for nuclear disarmament plans to be mobilized this year. “Nulcear [sic] weapons and their unchecked proliferation are a major threat to us all,” Steinmeier told the mass circulation German tabloid Bild am Sonntag. >>> th/tw, dpa/afp | Sunday, 5. April 2009
