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Terminating Nonproliferation Agreements with Russia:  Dangerous and Unnecessary

FOR RELEASE: July 22, 2003

CONTACT: Ken Luongo, (215) 523-9041 or Bill Hoehn, (202) 332-1412

(Washington DC) – The Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council (RANSAC) today praised members of the U.S. House of Representatives for protesting the possible non-renewal of two key U.S.-Russian nuclear security agreements by the Bush administration because of disputes over liability language.

Kenneth N. Luongo, RANSAC’s Executive Director said, “The House letter is a courageous effort to stop a flawed decision.  Allowing these agreements to expire is wrong and unnecessary at this time.  It sends a terrible signal about the importance of securing the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on earth as rapidly as possible.”

As RANSAC stated in its July 2, 2003 letter to the administration on this issue, “The need for comprehensive liability protections is clear”.  But, Luongo noted, “there are less drastic options currently available to the administration, including extending the agreements for one year while negotiations over disputed issues continue.”

Luongo added, “If the administration lets these agreements lapse it will continue the baffling and dangerous trend under President Bush of allowing serious and festering disagreements to thwart important Nunn-Lugar threat reduction progress.”

The agreements in question are the Plutonium Disposition Scientific and Technical Cooperation agreement and the Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) agreement.  Both agreements, signed in 1998, have five-year durations.  The plutonium agreement expires this week.  The NCI agreement expires in September.

Today’s letter from the House of Representatives, signed by Representatives Chet Edwards (TX), Adam Schiff (CA), Brad Sherman (CA), Ike Skelton (MO), John Spratt (SC), and Ellen Tauscher (CA) warns the President that “allowing these agreements to lapse or expire, which would delay and possibly terminate important activities, would be a dangerous and unnecessary development, and contrary to the abiding concerns that you have expressed regarding the need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and related proliferation risks around the world.”

A copy of the House letter follows this release.