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US, Russia Work to Combat Threats
May 27, 2002
By JUDITH INGRAM
MOSCOW (AP) - Led by the architects of the decade-old U.S. campaign to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union, American and Russian experts gathered in Moscow on Monday to set an agenda for jointly combating nuclear, chemical and biological terrorism.
``I believe that the gravest danger in the world today is the threat from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons,'' said former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, one of the co-authors of the U.S. cooperative threat reduction program, which has helped reduce and secure former Soviet weapons stockpiles.
``The likeliest use of these weapons is in terrorist hands,'' he said.
Nunn and program co-author Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., noted that President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction was their top priority. Bush repeated that during his latest summit with Putin, which ended Sunday.
``These are encouraging words, but if this is our priority, what is our strategy? Where are we putting our resources?'' Nunn asked.
The Nunn-Lugar program helped the ex-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus eliminate their nuclear arsenals, and helped Russia dismantle nuclear weapons, secure nuclear and chemical arsenals and provide alternative employment for former Soviet weapons scientists.
Lugar noted that much remained undone: Only 40 percent of nuclear storage sites in Russia have received U.S. assistance to upgrade security, and only 20 percent had received complete security systems.
In spite of the program's success, Lugar said it faced some opposition in the U.S. Congress because of Russia's failure to provide full information about its activities in the chemical and biological weapons area - including Moscow's refusal to allow monitors into four biological laboratories run by the Ministry of Defense.
``Continued (Russian) transfers of weapon technology to Iran are also disturbing and weaken support for an expanded and improved relationship,'' Lugar said.
Conference participants suggested new programs modeled on Nunn-Lugar to address global threats. Russian foreign policy expert Sergei Karaganov proposed what he called an international coalition or ``holy alliance'' to prevent catastrophic terrorism, and to jointly develop civil defense programs.
Lugar called for the Nunn-Lugar program to be expanded to target what he called the nexus between terrorists and weapons of mass destruction.
Specifically, he proposed that the program be extended to fund dismantlement of conventional submarines, many of which are fueled by highly enriched nuclear fuel; to reduce the threat from tactical nuclear weapons, which are more portable than the strategic ones the program addresses; and to complete security upgrades for nuclear storage facilities.
``Acquiring weapons and materials is the hardest step for the terrorists to take, and the easiest step for us to stop,'' Nunn said.
Andrei Kokoshin, a former Russian security council chief, said that the coalition working to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction should be widened to include Islamic nations. He also said more work needed to be done through the United Nations, which he said was the only international organization recognized as legitimate by most nations.
He also urged law enforcement agencies to make a radical turnabout, changing from their Cold War-era ways and sharing information more freely.
``We have to make a very substantial change in all existing mechanisms of law enforcement agencies, so they work adequately to meet the threats that have emerged especially since Sept. 11,'' he said.
The joint threat reduction program was launched in December 1991 and has been promoted through more than two dozen projects. About $8.5 billion have been earmarked for the program through fiscal year 2003.
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