The US-drafted UN Resolution 1887 on non-proliferation and disarmament passed unanimously today at the Security Council meeting chaired by President Obama. In attendance were the heads-of-state for fourteen nations, the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and a high level diplomat from Libya as well as some celebrity observers.  The passage of this resolution demonstrates great political will to address the dangers of nuclear weapons proliferation, a new era of American engagement, and a belief in multilateral institutions such as the UN to get things done.  This meeting also demonstrates a follow through by President Obama and his administration about his vision in Prague this spring of a nuclear weapons free world.

On September 24, President Obama will be the first US president ever to chair a special meeting of the UN Security Council, which will focus on nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear disarmament. The US has taken another important step in showing its commitment to addressing the nuclear weapons threat by drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on all countries with nuclear weapons to disarm with the aim of getting the resolution approved. Politico obtained a draft of the text, which contains a lot of positive language that is still subject to change. The resolution calls for nations that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to begin negotiations to reduce their nuclear stockpiles and to negotiate “a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control, and calls on all other states to join in this endeavor.”