Nuclear Security Summit: A Fresh Start

On Monday and Tuesday, President Obama will be leading one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in Washington history in the first summit to focus exclusively on the threat posed by the world's nuclear weapons.

The goal of the meeting will be to persuade the 46 foreign leaders to care as much as he does about nuclear disarmament, a promise Obama made during his presidential campaign.

This meeting goes beyond liberal and conservative, and instead, focuses on the ability of our president to set aside important national interests to achieve shared international ones. This is the only way to truly uphold the American values of peace and prosperity for all.

Obama has already made significant strides in making sure this Nuclear Security Summit is productive and efficient through his recent strategic arms-reduction treaty with Russia last week. The treaty not only strengthens the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but also shows the United State’s ability and desire to compromise for a long term stability and security.

The president has also introduced a new policy of seeking a unified international response to Iran's nuclear ambitions, including stronger United Nations sanctions. Some Republicans criticize the policy as too weak, but they fail to recognize the importance of negotiation. It is because the U.S. has been too strict with countries such as Iran that now, we have not only deteriorated our relations with their leaders, but also have placed ourselves in a tougher position to reach any goal. You have to compromise in order to get anything positive accomplished. Obama, unlike his predecessors, understands this.

While there is still much work needed to be done to secure nuclear weapons across the globe, President Obama has done a great job of improving our relations with foreign countries, thus making it easier to find common solutions .

This is just one of several concrete steps the president is taking to make good on his pledge to truly make America and the world safer by reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, proliferation and terrorism.