The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution from president Barack Obama that would strengthen efforts to slow the spread of nuclear weapons. Plenty in this White House statement, but the long and the short of it is that the resolution endorses strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and improving nuclear security.

It also called for “full compliance” on all Security Council resolutions relating to Iran and North Korea, two trouble states for the non-proliferation regime.

There’s some reason to suspect that Obama’s announcement of the withdrawal of a proposed missile defence system from Poland and the Czech Republic may have helped to aid the resolution’s passage, particularly with Russia—one of the Security Council’s permanent members and a long time hold out against sanctions against Iran. The New York Times quotes Russian President Dmitri Medvedev as saying:

“I told His Excellency Mr. President that we believe we need to help Iran to take a right decision,” Mr. Medvedev said, adding that “sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases, sanctions are inevitable.”

Even though the resolution is non-binding, meaning nobody’s obligated to follow through, the press is already endorsing it as a diplomatic victory for Obama and for non-proliferation. A look at the times:

U.N. Security Council Adopts Measure on Nuclear Arms (NY Times)

Obama wins passage of nuclear nonproliferation resolution at U.N. (LA Times)

(Times of India)

Credit: United Nations