Vice President Al Gore is pleased with the Defense Conversion Committee(DCC)'s continuing progress in the conversion of Russian excess defenseindustry to commercial endeavors. The DCC has encouraged private U.S.investment in Russian defense conversion and the involvement of regionalleaders in the restructuring of defense-dependent economies. The VicePresident commends the DCC-sponsored economic development initiative inthe town of Reutov, citing it as an excellent model for othercommunity-based economic development projects in Russia. He stresses thecontinuing importance of defense conversion project finance, insurance,and project feasibility study support from the Overseas Private InvestmentCorporation and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, calling the involvement of these U.S. agencies critical to the long term successof our conversion efforts in Russia. Finally, he congratulates the DefenseEnterprise Fund on its excellent conversion investment performance inRussia to date and encourages the Fund to move ahead energetically withthe creation of a new, private fund which will also support conversion andhigh technology ventures in Russia.

Vice President Gore strongly urges the U.S. and Russian sides of the DCCto demonstrate progress on the conclusion of a cooperative agreement onmilitary-technical and dual-use technologies. He charges the committee tohave an agreement in this promising new area in place by the tenth meetingof the GCC.

Vice President Gore welcomes the signature by Deputy Secretary of DefenseHamre and Minister of Atomic Energy Mikhailov of the Core ConversionImplementing Agreement. This agreement supports the nonproliferation goalsof both nations expressed in the Plutonium Production Reactor Agreement,and represents one of the Vice President's highest priorities.U.S.-Russian collaboration to convert the reactor cores means that Russiawill join the U.S. in no longer producing weapons-grade plutonium. TheU.S. Defense Department has committed up to $10 million for this newCooperative Threat Reduction project, and will provide additional fundingas it is appropriated by the Congress.

A comprehensive and encouraging report on the DoD's Cooperative Threat Reduction Program has been submitted to the Chairman of the Government ofthe Russian Federation and the Vice President. That program continues toadvance our mutual security goals including: accelerated and safereduction of nuclear materials, chemical and nuclear weapons; and thesafety and security of remaining nuclear weapons and materials.