Obama also asked the world leaders that gathered for the summit to plot a response to a hypothetical attack by a global terrorist network.
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He said that Pakistan has ensured that nuclear and radioactive materials and all related facilities are secured in all places.
Toby Dalton, co-director of the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a DC-based think tank, said that none of the current crop of USA presidential candidates seem to consider nuclear security a high priority.
“ISIL has already used chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Syria and Iraq”, Obama said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
Hoping to galvanize action to prevent such groups from getting hold of nuclear weapons or material for a “dirty bomb”, Obama painted an apocalyptic picture of the effects of a nuclear attack.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s focus on building up the military at the expense of economic development has slowed progress on a next phase of nuclear arms reductions.
“It came up on the sidelines, I’ve said before, that people pay attention to American elections”, Obama said.
“It would be a humanitarian, political, economic and environmental catastrophe with global ramifications for decades”. “We can not be complacent”.
In a landmark speech in Prague in 2009, Obama set out an optimistic vision of a planet without nuclear weapons.
The recent attacks in Brussels increased fears of a nuclear terrorist attack.
Obama continued to reiterate the importance of America’s presence across the Pacific. “We commit to fostering a peaceful and stable worldwide environment by reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism and strengthening nuclear security”, the communique said. He pronounced it a “substantial success”.
The White House will for the first time release the death toll from drone strikes conducted since 2009, officials said last month.
The president also met with leaders who cobbled together the Iran nuclear deal.
“The statements you mentioned, what do they tell us?”
During the 90-minute meeting, Xi and Obama discussed a range of issues, including economic policies, cooperation on nuclear security, maritime issues and the stability of the Korean peninsula.
At the conference, Mark Rutte, prime minister of the Netherlands, struck an optimistic note.
On Friday an Indian spokesman announced that India would contribute US$1 million (Dh3.7m) to the nuclear security fund, a reserve of voluntary donations that finances activities to safeguard nuclear materials.
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He noted that more than a dozen nations had disposed of their entire supplies of highly-enriched uranium and plutonium – the radioactive elements necessary to build nuclear bombs.
