WASHINGTON - October 9 - Global Zero, a group of more than 200 political and military leaders from around the world, today applauded President Obama as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in part based on his leadership to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons.

In April, Presidents Obama and Medvedev declared their commitment to eliminating all nuclear weapons and subsequently announced goals for negotiations on new reductions in their two countries' arsenals.

On September 24th, President Obama convened a Special Security Council Summit on nonproliferation and disarmament at which the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons

Ambassador Richard Burt, Chief U.S. Negotiator for the START 1 negotiations and Global Zero U.S. Chair, said, "Global Zero applauds President Obama on receiving the Nobel Prize and for his extraordinary leadership, along with President Medvedev, to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. This award reflects a new international consensus that whatever stability nuclear arsenals may have provided during the Cold War is now outweighed by the growing risks of proliferation and nuclear terrorism - and that the only way in the long term to eliminate the nuclear threat is to eliminate all nuclear weapons."