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Lugar Seeks Expanded Cooperative Threat Reduction

Global Security Newswire
July 23, 2004

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) yesterday called for the expansion of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which seeks to secure and dispose of former Soviet weapons of mass destruction, to include countries beyond the former Soviet Union (see GSN, July 22).

“Topping our priorities must be to make certain that all weapons and materials of mass destruction are identified, continuously guarded, and systematically destroyed ... to keep them out of the hands of terrorists. Expanding and globalizing the Nunn-Lugar program can help accomplish this,” Lugar said in a press statement on the report of the U.S. commission examining the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lugar, along with former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), is the architect of the CTR program (Lugar release, July 22).

In a report of its findings released yesterday, the Sept. 11 commission called for increased efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, including increased support for the CTR program. In addition, the commission recommended the creation of an international legal regime for the prosecution of would-be WMD smugglers and the expansion of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led multilateral effort to interdict WMD-related cargo shipments (Sept. 11 commission release, July 22).

Yesterday, the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council released a report outlining the 2003 accomplishments of various U.S. threat reduction programs, including the Defense Department-operated CTR program and efforts conducted by the Energy and State departments. The accomplishments listed in the report include the destruction of Russian ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and related equipment, progress in the construction of a chemical weapons disposal facility near the Russian town of Shchuchye and progress in eliminating Soviet-era biological weapons infrastructure (Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council release, July 22).