Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and corralling components for a dirty bomb terror attack is fast becoming Canada's top agenda item for the G8 summit it will host this summer.
The global economic downturn will dominate talks by the leaders of the Group of Eight countries when they hold their June summit in Huntsville, Ont., but aides to Prime Minister Stephen Harper are laying the ground work for another issue: giving new momentum to global nuclear non-proliferation efforts.
Canada is being urged to offer the Huntsville summit as an international platform to highlight the threats posed by the rogue nuclear states of Iran and North Korea, as well as terrorists acquiring the components for a nuclear dirty bomb.
A recent report submitted to the U.S. Congress predicted a nuclear or biological dirty bomb commandeered by terrorists will be used by 2013.
It appears Canada will have at least two important G8 supporters in their effort to put reducing nuclear stockpiles atop the G8 agenda. The Obama White House in Washington and the Kremlin in Moscow. U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, have agreed to pursue a new treaty to reduce their formidable nuclear arsenals.
Because it holds the 2010 presidency of the G8, Canada gets to set the agenda, and featuring arms control has some tangible political benefits for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It diverts focus from another big global issue - climate change, where Canada's energy and environmental policies face a high level of international criticism - and it aligns Canadian foreign policy with Mr. Obama's international priorities.
Last month, Russia and the United States agreed to extend the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty past its Dec. 5 expiration so that negotiators could craft a replacement agreement.
Mr. Obama has made a "world without nuclear weapons" a foreign policy goal, as he presided over a landmark United Nations Security Council meeting last fall that unanimously affirmed that goal. Mr. Obama has also reached out to Russia in an attempt to "restart" a relationship that had become increasingly strained.
Mr. Obama wants to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has a few notable non-members - India, Pakistan and Israel - and curb the production of weapons' grade uranium.
"We discussed it with Canada," Georgiy Mamedov, the Russian ambassador to Canada and a former chief arms control negotiator, said in an interview in which he discussed the G8 preparations.
"I expect Canada to play a leading and very important role in providing incentives for other countries to abide by (the) NPT treaty."
Mr. Mamedov said non-proliferation could be "a staple of the G8 meeting because we are all concerned about the speedy proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."
In particular, Mr. Mamedov said security officials in Canada and elsewhere are worried about the threat posed if nuclear material fell into terrorists' hands and was used to manufacture a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb that could devastate a large city.
"When we speak with special services in Canada and elsewhere, which I do in my line of job, and I ask them: what do you believe is the immediate real threat in your country in terms of terrorism? They will place at the head of their list, (the) possibility of terrorists obtaining some dirty bomb," said Mr. Mamedov.
A dirty bomb would use a conventional explosive to spread poisonous radiation. While the immediate loss of life would be reduced compared to a nuclear bomb, a dirty bomb could have severe long-term health effects on victims and render large portions of cities uninhabitable for extended periods of time.
Mr. Mamedov said non-proliferation is a key agenda item being circulated by the Harper Conservatives to foreign governments.
Ernie Regehr, of the Canadian peace group Project Ploughshares, welcomed any move by the Conservative government to highlight non-proliferation at this year's G8. He said it would build on the work begun at the last Canadian-hosted G8 in Kananaskis, Alta. in 2002.
"Until recently, there's been not much prospect for anything related to nuclear disarmament getting onto a G8 agenda for obvious reasons - the Bush administration. The best that could be done was Kananaskis," said Mr. Regehr.
Canada's then-Liberal government committed $1-billion towards the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, an initiative that focused on cleaning up Russian nuclear material left over following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
"The possibility that terrorist groups or countries of proliferation concern may gain access to this knowledge, materials or WMDs represents a real danger to domestic and international security," says a summary of Canada's involvement in the program on the Foreign Affairs Department website, dated last week.
But the G8 has to address the "very confused approach" to India, Pakistan and Israel, said Mr. Regehr. "There obviously needs to be a means of incorporating these three states into a nuclear non proliferation regime of some kind."
Mr. Regehr also questioned the Bush administration's deal on civil nuclear co-operation with India and the Harper government's own ambitions to pursue nuclear trade with India.
Mr. Regehr has argued that Canada should seek a written commitment from India not to test another nuclear bomb and verifiable limits on its stockpiling of uranium.
On Monday, Mr. Harper trumpeted Canada's hosting of the G8, the G20 summit immediately following it, and next month's Winter Olympics in British Columbia as signs of major international leadership by the country. But the Prime Minister was vague about what would be on the agenda of the summits.
Mr. Harper's chief spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said Monday the G8 agenda was still a work in progress.