← Videos · Energy & Permitting

Secretary Rubio Hosts a Nuclear Cooperation Memorandum Signing with Bahrain, Jul. 16, 2025

July 16, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 0:08:26

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted a Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony on Nuclear Cooperation with Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani at the Department of State on July 16, 2025, according to the State Department broadcast.

Ann Ganzer of the Bureau of Arms Control and Nonproliferation introduced the signing, saying that developing civil nuclear energy at home and abroad is “a major priority for the United States,” reflected in the four executive orders the President signed in May 2025, and that the memorandum builds on collaboration through the FIRST program for responsible use of small modular reactor technology. Rubio called it “the first step towards a deeper civil nuclear cooperation — an example that the United States is prepared to be a partner with any nation on Earth that wants to pursue a civil nuclear program that clearly is not geared towards weaponization or threatening the security of their neighbors,” and said U.S. private-sector nuclear technology is the best in the world. Al Zayani said the memorandum underscores a shared commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear technology and to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Why it matters

The Bahrain memorandum is an early brick in the administration’s civil-nuclear export push — small-modular-reactor cooperation offered to close partners under explicit nonproliferation terms, with the State Department, not just Energy, carrying the file.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the signing itself on July 16, 2025 — a U.S.-Bahrain Memorandum of Understanding on civil nuclear cooperation. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Hosted a Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony on Nuclear Cooperation” (official upload, embedded above; Department of State). Remarks as delivered 2025-07-16; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store; full transcript at state.gov.