King leaves for US to attend nuclear summit

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday left the Kingdom for an official working visit to Washington, DC, to take part in the Nuclear Security Summit to be held this week, a Royal Court statement said. 

On the sidelines of the summit, His Majesty is scheduled to meet with several political leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, with whom he will discuss regional and international developments. 

The King has taken part in the three nuclear security summits held in Washington in 2010, Seoul in 2012 and in The Hague in 2014. 

The nuclear summit was initiated by US President Barack Obama who, in a speech delivered in Prague in 2009, described nuclear terrorism as one of the gravest threats to international security and called for joint-international efforts to prevent it.

During the 2012 and 2014 nuclear security summits, the Kingdom presented a Statement of Activity and Cooperation to Counter Nuclear Smuggling, signed by as many as 20 countries. In support of the commitments outlined in that statement, Jordan has over the past two years hosted two multilateral counter-nuclear smuggling workshops.

HRH Prince Feisal was sworn in as Regent.