Nobel Message from Oslo

Today is the day of the Nobel prices in Stockholm and Oslo. The peace price is awarded in Oslo, and the science and litterature prices in Stockholm.

In Oslo City Hall, the IAEA Director-General El Baradei had just delivered his Nobel lecture. And it is worth reading.

He describes the changing landscape of nuclear proliferation:

"There are three main features to this changing landscape: the emergence of an extensive black market in nuclear material and equipment; the proliferation of nuclear weapons and sensitive nuclear technology; and the stagnation in nuclear disarmament."

And this is not something that anyone of us can ignore:

"Today, with globalization bringing us ever closer together, if we choose to ignore the insecurities of some, they will soon become the insecurities of all."

"Equally, with the spread of advanced science and technology, as long as some of us choose to rely on nuclear weapons, we continue to risk that these same weapons will become increasingly attractive to others."

These are the larger issues surrounding the handling of the more concrete challenges we are facing at the moment in this area.

North Korea continues to stall the six-party negotiations on its nuclear potential. And from the new President of Iran comes a stream of increasingly outrageous statements.

Nobel Lecture: "i"