A U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) delegation recently
visited Moscow to add additional funding to the Cooperative
Threat Reduction (CTR) Program in Russia.
The delegation also
reviewed the status of ongoing CTR projects.
The delegation included the Deputy Assistant to the
Secretary of Defense for CTR Programs Roland Lajoie, Special
Coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction Laura Holgate, and a
team of DoD experts.
Holgate concluded and signed four
amendments to current CTR agreement with Russian Ministries which
are partners with DoD in the development of CTR projects.
These four amendments apply additional funds in the amount
of USD 209.3 million in FY97 CTR funds and USD 5 million in
previously unobligated FY96 CTR funds for a total of USD 214.3
million in new funds applied to CTR agreements with Russia.
The
following amendments were signed during the period April 8
through April 11, 1997:
- The value of CTR assistance to the Weapons
Protection, Control, and Accounting Program was increased by USD
15 million to a total of USD 116 million by the signing of an
amendment to the Nuclear Weapons Storage Security agreement by
Holgate and Lieutenant General Valynkin of the Ministry of
Defense (MoD).
- An amendment to the CTR agreement providing
assistance in the construction of a storage facility for fissile
material derived from dismantled nuclear weapons was signed by
Holgate and Deputy Minister Makarov of the Ministry of Atomic
Energy (MinAtom) to increase the value of CTR assistance from USD
84 million to USD 150 million.
- Holgate signed an amendment to the Destruction of
Chemical Weapons Agreement
with Mr. Syutkin of the President's Committee on Conventional
Problems of Chemical and
Biological Weapons of the Russian Federation to increase the
value of CTR assistance from USD 68 million to USD 136.5 million.
This amendment also delegated responsibility to MoD to act on
behalf of the Russian federation regarding the Russian
organophosphorus agent-filled artillery munitions destruction
facility project.
- An amendment to the Elimination of Strategic
Offensive Arms Agreement was signed by Holgate and Minister of
Defense Industries Pak to increase the value of CTR assistance
from USD 231 million to USD 295.8 million.
This includes USD 5
million of previously unobligated FY96 CTR funds.
Through the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, the
U.S. has provided assistance in the form of equipment, services,
and technical advice to Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan, and Ukraine
used in the dismantlement of strategic delivery systems and in
the consolidation of nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union.
The bulk of this assistance is implemented by the U.S. Department
of Defense as a program not of altruistic charity, but based on
hard-nosed considerations of national and international security.
By helping to eliminate and secure former Soviet weapons of mass
destruction, DoD and its partners ensure that the requirements of
the hard-won treaties negotiated in recent years are met, that
weapons are controlled in a safe and secure manner, and that non-
proliferation goals are maintained.
Over the last five years, the CTR program has notified over
USD 1.8 billion to Congress for use in Russia, Belarus,
Kazakstan, and Ukraine.
Over USD 1.2 billion has been obligated
for this program, and spending rates have increased steadily
since the program's inception in FY92.
The addition of USD 209.3
million in FY97 CTR funds raises the amount of CTR funds applied
to Russian projects to slightly over USD 1.1 billion.
Lajoie and the team of DoD experts followed up the signing
with a comprehensive review of the status of ongoing CTR projects
with Russian counterparts at MoD, MinAtom, Ministry of Defense
Industries and the President's Committee on Conventional Problems
of Chemical and Biological Weapons.
DoD and Russian technical
experts meet very routinely both in Russia and in the United
States to evaluate Russian requirements, to develop CTR
assistance projects, and to monitor project implementation.
DoD and the Russian MoD have been working together since
1992 under the Weapons Protection, Control, and Accounting
(WPC&A) Program in the joint development of projects which have
provided armored blankets, security upgrade kits for nuclear
weapons railcars, emergency response equipment, and 150
supercontainers to enhance security during the transportation of
nuclear weapons, and which will provide a computerized weapons
stockpile system, security upgrades at weapons storage sites, and
a drug and alcohol monitoring program for the weapons guard force
in order to upgrade security at MoD weapons storage sites.
In partnership with the Ministry of Atomic Energy, DoD is
assisting in the construction of a storage facility for fissile
material derived from dismantled nuclear weapons.
Located at the
Mayak Production Facility in Chelyabinsk, the Fissile Material
Storage Facility is currently under construction and will be able
to start accepting fissile material containers for storage in
early 1999.
It will be able to store 50,000 fissile material
containers.
Under the Chemical Weapons Destruction Program, DoD is
working with the President's Committee on Conventional Problems
of Chemical and Biological Weapons and the Ministry of Defense in
the development of a chemical weapons destruction process and
munitions processing equipment, upgrading a central analytical
laboratory, and the eventual construction of a chemical weapons
destruction facility.
Under the Strategic Offensive Arms Elimination Program, DoD
in cooperation with Russia's Ministry of Defense Industries has
developed a number of projects which assist Russia with strategic
offensive arms elimination including the dismantlement of: long-
range bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and missile
launchers, and submarine launched ballistic missile launchers and
strategic missile submarines, and the elimination of liquid
rocket fuel.
Thanks in part to CTR support for these projects,
Russia is well ahead of schedule in eliminating delivery systems
as required in the START I Treaty.
