U.N. Security Council Addresses Nukes

(CN) - Fifteen nations agreed to a U.S.-sponsored nuclear nonproliferation resolution Thursday in a unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council. The nonbinding resolution underscores the consensus for nonproliferation half a year before an international conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty convenes.

The meeting marks the first time an American president has chaired the Security Council Summit, and only the fifth time one has been held since the conception of the United Nations 63 years ago.

The resolution calls for nuclear arms reductions, in pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons, tighter security of nuclear stockpiles, and for all nations to follow the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It includes provisions that make it more difficult to withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty, as North Korea did several years ago.

It reinforces the obligations of the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide nations access to peaceful nuclear energy.

Though the resolution is not binding, President Barack Obama hailed the meeting as an important step forward.

"We harbor no illusions about the difficulty of bringing about a world without nuclear weapons," the president said. "But there will also be days like today that push us forward. It is the story of a world that understands that no difference or division is worth destroying all that we have built and all that we love."

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