Nuclear Security Summit: The Guest List

The White House is eager to tout more than 47 international leaders in Washington this week for the president's summit on nuclear-weapon security. As anybody who works in downtown D.C. can tell you, so many heads of state in town is highly unusual. Not even the 2008 inauguration, the last time the city was truly crippled, included so many motorcades.

Most countries sent their head of state, and there are some interesting names on the list. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Obama's top allies, is here. So is France's Nicolas Sarkozy, who was chowing down on American hot dogs in Washington just two weeks ago. Russia's Dmitry Medvedev is also participating, just four days after signing the new START 2 treaty with Obama in Prague. One eyebrow raiser is China's Hu Jintao, with whom American relations have been icy for several years due to currency disputes, the U.S. sale of arms to Taiwan, and Obama's meeting last year with the Dalai Lama. (A Chinese minister told the AP that after this week, relations will likely improve). Lastly, Pakistan's Gilani and India's Manmohan Singh, two leaders whose countries have a historic conflict over land, will both be visiting with Obama. No word yet on whether they'll meet each other.

Also interesting is who's missing. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, who George W. Bush once labeled America's strongest ally, sent his foreign secretary in his place, likely because Brown is up for reelection in three weeks. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu also pulled out recently fearing questions about his country's undeclared nuclear arsenal. There are two gaping holes—Iran and North Korea—that have been the subject of global nuclear discussions, although no one expected them to participate in such a forum. But there are other countries who never got invitations, including Azerbaijan, which has large piles of nuclear waste. "We couldn't invite every single country that hasany nuclear connectivity, and so we were looking for countries that representedregional diversity where we had states that had weapons, states that don't haveweapons, states with large nuclear programs, and states with small nuclearprograms," said Laura Holgate, senior White House director for WMD terrorism.

Here's the full list, as given by the White House:

Algeria
His Excellency Mourad Medelci
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

Argentine Republic
Her Excellency Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Armenia
His Excellency Serzh Sargsyan
President of the Republic of Armenia

Australia
The Honorable Senator John Faulkner
Minister for Defense of Australia

Belgium
His Excellency Yves Leterme
Prime Minister of Belgium

Brazil
His Excellency Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of the Federative Republic of Brazil

Canada
The Right Honorable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada

Chile
His Excellency Sebastián Piñera
President of the Republic of Chile

China
His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China

Czech Republic
His Excellency Jan Fischer
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic

Egypt
His Excellency Ahmed Aboul Gheit
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt

European Union
His Excellency Herman Van Rompuy
President of the European Council

Finland
Her Excellency Tarja Halonen
President of the Republic of Finland

France
His Excellency Nicolas Sarkozy
President of the French Republic

Georgia
His Excellency Mikheil Saakashvili
President of Georgia

Germany
Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel
Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany

India
His Excellency Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of the Republic of India

Indonesia
His Excellency Dr. Boediono
Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia

International Atomic Energy Agency
Mr. Yukiya Amano
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency

Israel
His Excellency Dan Meridor
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy of Israel

Italy
His Excellency Silvio Berlusconi
President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic

Japan
His Excellency Yukio Hatoyama
Prime Minister of Japan

Jordan
His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein
King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Kazakhstan
His Excellency Nursultan Nazarbayev
President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Korea
His Excellency Lee Myung-bak
President of the Republic of Korea

Malaysia
The Honorable Dato' Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak
Prime Minister of Malaysia

Mexico
His Excellency Felipe Calderon Hinojosa
President of the United Mexican States

Morocco
His Excellency Abbas El Fassi
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco

The Netherlands
His Excellency Dr. Jan Peter Balkenende
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

New Zealand
The Honorable John Key
Prime Minister of New Zealand

Nigeria
His Excellency Dr. Goodluck E. Jonathan
Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Norway
His Excellency Jens Stoltenberg
Prime Minister of Norway

Pakistan
His Excellency Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani
Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Philippines
Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President of the Republic of the Philippines

Poland
His Excellency Radoslaw Sikorski
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

Russia
His Excellency Dmitry A. Medvedev
President of the Russian Federation

Saudi Arabia
His Royal Highness Prince Muqrin bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud
President of the General Intelligence Presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Singapore
His Excellency Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore

South Africa
His Excellency Jacob Zuma
President of the Republic of South Africa

Spain
His Excellency José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
President of the Government of Spain

Sweden
His Excellency Fredrik Reinfeldt
Prime Minister of Sweden

Switzerland
Her Excellency Doris Leuthard
President of the Swiss Confederation

Thailand
His Excellency Trairong Suwankiri
Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand

Turkey
His Excellency Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

Ukraine
His Excellency Viktor Yanukovych
President of Ukraine

United Arab Emirates
His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces

United Kingdom
The Right Honorable David Miliband, M.P.
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

United Nations
His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations

United States
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States

Vietnam
His Excellency Nguyen Tan Dung
Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam