ACCESSION NUMBER:294664 FILE ID:POL303 DATE:07/14/93 TITLE:U.S. TO ADHERE TO "NARROW" ABM INTERPRETATION (07/14/93) TEXT:*93071403.POL U.S. TO ADHERE TO "NARROW" ABM INTERPRETATION (Graham outlines ACDA plans to Senate committee) (XXX) By Paul Malamud USIA Staff Writer Washington -- The Clinton administration will adhere to the so-called "narrow" interpretation of the Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty with the Soviet Union and its successor states, says Thomas Graham Jr., acting director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). In a letter presented at a July 14 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on ACDA's budget request for Fiscal Year 1994, Graham made plain that "it is the position of the Clinton administration that the 'narrow' or 'traditional' interpretation of the ABM Treaty is the correct interpretation and therefore that the ABM Treaty prohibits the development, testing and deployment of sea-based, air-based, space-based and mobile land-based ABM systems and components without regard to the technology utilized." Administration officials at the hearing explained that, in effect, this makes it more likely that the United States will negotiate with the former Soviet states before deploying ABM technology. Graham also said the administration is strongly committed to the "re-invigoration and re-vitalization of ACDA," as well as to arms control. The Clinton administration wants ACDA to achieve "full participation...in executive-branch policymaking," he declared, noting that one priority of this policymaking will be "a comprehensive (nuclear) test-ban treaty." 1 Graham called President Clinton's decision not to continue U.S. nuclear tests as long as no other nation tests an "historic watershed....I believe there is a reasonable chance that (this) moratorium will hold." Graham said he hoped the United States will have negotiated a complete test ban by 1995. Asked how the administration hopes to "re-vitalize" ACDA, Graham said "We expect to have more influence over the management and conduct of negotiations...non-proliferation policy...presenting effectively the arms control perspective." In addition, he said, his aim was to make sure that "all arms-control implementing bodies will be led by ACDA officials." ACDA, Graham said, will be leading the U.S. delegation to the Non-Proliferation Treaty extension conference in 1995 and hopes to "garner support for" indefinite extension of that treaty. However, both Graham and Ted McNamara, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for politico-military affairs, said they oppose provisions of legislation sponsored by Senators Paul Simon and Claiborne Pell that would turn ACDA into a quasi-independent authority with broad power to prohibit exports of sensitive U.S. technology. McNamara told Senators there is "some concern" at the State Department that the new bill could "abrogate" the authority of the secretary of state. But Simon replied that, in his view, there is "not much substance" to the proposed "re-vitalization" measures. He charged that ACDA has been largely a component of the Pentagon and relegated to routine functions. Simon said his proposed bill would help create an ACDA "with some strength" of its own in the bureaucratic maze. Graham also told the senators that ACDA is requesting a budget of $62.5 million for FY '94, a $16 million increase over its 1993 appropriation, to carry out its programs. NNNN .