ASH CAP TER 617 495 9250 tlar 10 2005 10 09AM P2 TRIP RBPORTr A VISIT TO THE COMMONWEALTH OP IMOKPBNDRNT STA TBS BY 3im AT01 SM IDiJl JI fo- A • S R RICJD RD LtJCJUl R-UI SBA TOR JOBH WARNF R R-VA c ARD SRRATOlt JBFP BJ NGHJ Kl N 0-NH MARCH G-10 1992 I DRRQDUC'l' ION our bipartisan deleqation of four United States Senators traveled to Russia and Ukraine from Mareh 6-10 1992 A planned visit to Belarus had to be canceled due to bad weathor at the Minsk Airport Ou% delegation consisted of1 -- Senator Sam Nunn D-GA Chai r man of the Armed Services Committee -- senator Richard Lugar R-IND Member and former Chairman of the Foreign' Relations Committee -- Senator John Warner R-VA Flanking Republican Member Armed Services Committee and -- Senator Jeff Bingaman O-N M Ch•i man Subcommi ttee on Defense Induotry and Technology Armed Services Commi ttee The focus of the delegation was three-folds 1 Strengthening politLcal and economic relatLons between the United States and Russia Ukraine and Belarus and offering our support for the dramatic process of democratization that is occurring in those countries · 2 Discussing the convQrslon of former defense industriw» to commercial non-military production nd 3 Promoting the acceleration of the disabling transport dismantlement and eventual Ali m ination of tens ot thousands of nuclear and chemical weapons of the Commonwealt h of Independent States CIS In Moscow the delegation Met ith senior executive and parlLamentary officials including Pirst Deputy Prime Minister Gaidar CIS Anned Forces Chief of Staff Sam3onov Presidential Advisor for Defense Converslo n wtaley Head of the Russian 1 From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive FRON ASH OiRTER 617 495 9250 PHONE NO f'lar- 10 2005 10 09AM P3 Scientific Industrial Onion Volskiy Vice President of the Russian Academy of Scientists Velikov and Chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet Committees on Foreign Affairs and Defense Abmartsumov and Stepashin curing our stay Ln Russia the delegation also toured the CIS Nuclear RJ sk Reduction Center met with a number of American businessmen involved in joint ventures with Russian partners and visited Russian defense industrialistn and research institute directors in the Mosco suburb of Podol'sk In Kiev the de1egation met w th President Kravchuk Defense Minister Morozov Minister for Defenoe Conversion Antonov and numerous members of par liament The delegation also toured A defense plant undergoing conve sion During the trip the delegation as ably assisted by three distinguiohed experts from outside of government who had partic u1ar expertise in the areas of principal interest to the group -- Dr Wi11ia m Perry former Under Secretary of Defense for Research Development Test and Bvaiuation in the Carter Administration and currently a Professor specializing in defense conversion at Stanford University -- or Ashton Carter Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at the JPX School of Government Harvard University who has worked extonsivoly on issues related to controlling and dismantling the nuclear arsenal of the former Soviet Union ' FSU and -- Dr David ' Hamburg Presid e nt of the Carneg ie Corporation and an eminent physician i n his own right who has extensive contacts with scientists and foundations in the CIS The delegation ' was also assisted by the following professional staff members of the Azmed Services and oreign Rela ions Comm 1 ttees and personal staff assistants to the members Robert Bell SASC Dick Combs SASC Brian Dailey SASC Rose Johnson Nunn 8d McGaffigan Bingaman Kan Myers SFRC Pat Tucker SA SC 2 From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive FROM PHJNE NO ASH CARTER c 617 4'35 '3250 Mar 10 2005 10 lBAt'I P16 Current Situation To date the President has not certified to Congress that Russia or other states of the FSU have met the conditions set forth in the provision and no Nunn-Lugar funds have yet been expended It is clear however that the Nunn-Lugar amendment haa played a critical role in cataly2ing action nd in focusing attention -- not only in our government but more importantly in the governments of Russia Ukraine Belarus and lCazakhstan -- on accelerating the removal dismantlement and eventual el i rn ination of CIS nuclear weapons Although negotiations en implementation of the Nunn-Lugar amendment got off to a slow start in recent months the Administration and CIS officials havo made 1 Jnportant progress in furthering the goals of the legislation In particular CIS mi litary authorities had until Ukrainian President ltravchuk's March 12 announcemont made substantial progress in removing tactical nuclear weapons to secure central stor age J n Russia and preparing them for destruction On March 12 the Ukrai niAn President announced that while not changing the overall policy that Ukraine is seekl ng to become nuclear-free he lfflS halting further shipments of these warheads to Russia and that Ukraine intended to elim inate the warheads on its own aoil near Chernobyl with foreign assistance Tactical nuclear weapons are the most widely dispersed easily moved and least securely controlled of the former Soviet Union•s nuclear weapons Their complete removal from deployment sites to a much smaller number of storage si es leading to their eventual destruction would remove a critical source of potential nuclear danger I mportantly the coMplete removal 0£ the tactical nuclear weapons to Russia would then lead directly into the procesG of ellminating the remaining strategic nuclear weapons f rom former Soviet republics that have indicated that they want to be nuclear weapons-free states Avoiding the creation of new nuclear states has been a long-standing priority objective of U S £ reign policy During the delegation visit to Kiev the delegation received strong hints that Ukraine might assert a claim to the str teg c nuclear missiles and rheads remalnl ng on its soil Upon our return to Washington the delegation reported this development to senior State and Defense Department officials noting i t as a major concern 'While i t is possible that President Cravchuk's announcQJnant is meant to provide Ukraine with additional bargaining leverage at the upcoming Karch 20 CIS Summit in K Lev i t would unless revarsed entail profound implications for u s policy with regard to the Non-Proliferatlon Treaty and possibly for the integrity of the START Treaty 15 From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive FROM ASH CARTER 617 4'35 92S0 Mar 10 2005 10 1'3 P17 While much has been accomplished to date in elLminatlng CIS nuclear weapons this latest unfortunate development underscores that much remains to be accomplished The united States still has important security objectives with respect to -- ensuring the resumpt on and early completion of the removal of tactical nuclear weapons to Russia that ia now underway -- ensuring that the declared goals of Ukraine Belarus and Ka akhstan to remove and deatroy those strategic nuclear weapons now deployed on their territory ia fac litated as quickly as possible -- ensuring that the early destruction of nuclear chemical and other weapons of the PSU is aeccsaplished with maxi mum safety security and concern for the environment -- ensuring that safe and environmentaliy-aound solutions to the problem of the ultimate dispoaLtion of plutoniwa and h igh ly enriched uraniwa extracted from nuclear warheads are Ldentified 1 -- ensurLng that these weapons the technologieo associated with these weapons and the aeient fie knowledge required to build these weapons do not proliferate to hostile or unstable nations -- ensuring that the weapons complexes of the former Soviet Union are greatly reduced in number nd that they reorient themselves to peaceful domestic production We believe that the Nunn-Lugar amendment represents a critical mechanism for promoting the achievement of thaaa g'o als wh ich are ell squarely in tha national security interests of our nation We thus st ongly urge that this legislation be used to its fullest potential In this regard the delegation makes the following recommendations c Recommendation To date expert-level discussions on the salecy security and dismantlement of CIS nuclear weapons the ·sso• talks have been conducted exclusively between the Un ted Statea and Russia · These discuasiona have made good p ogress and agreements should be rapidly concluded in a number of areas Specifically U S assistance under the Nunn-Lugar amendment to include tha maximum poss£bls utilization of U S induotry 16 From the Nunn-Lugar collection of the National Security Archive FROM