Cooperative Threat Reduction Provisions
The CTR Program translates congressional directives, national security priorities, and foreign policy goals into a coherent program with five objectives:
Objective 1: Assist Russia in acclerating strategic arms reduction to Strategic Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty (START) levels. CTR supports U.S. arms control efforts by encouraging the accession of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as non-nuclear weapons states and helping them meet their START I arms control obligations.These three states inherited a large portion of the FSU's nuclear arsenal. Without CTR assistance to perform required eliminations, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus would have ranked third, fourth, and eighth, respectively, among the nuclear weapons powers in the world. Through its destruction and dismantlement projects, CTR has helped counter the emergence of three new nuclear powers by providing them the means to remove or destroy WMD.
Objective 2: Enhance safety, security, control, accounting, & centralization of nuclear weapons & fissile material in the former Soviet Union to prevent their proliferation & encourage their reduction. This objective is central to reducing the risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons and fissile material from Russia. These "chain of custody" issues relate to the process of safely and securely transporting, storing, and dismantling up to 24,000 warheads, including over 3,300 warheads removed from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine to Russia. The success of dismantlement projects has generated a new challenge - tons of excess fissile material for which Russia lacks adequate secure storage capacity. CTR also is planning to assist in converting reactors to cease production of weapons-grade plutonium. In all of these cases, the collapse of the Soviet Union's authoritarian society has left the FSU with weakened security systems, raising the real risk of proliferation through loss or diversion.
Objective 3: Assist Ukraine & Kazakhstan to eliminate START limited systems & weapons of mass destruction infrastructure.
CTR provides significant assistance to facilitate dismantlement of the strategic delivery systems (missile silos, ballistic missile submarines, heavy bombers and their associated missiles) required under START I. CTR will also support dismantlement efforts associated with START II once it enters into force and additional requirements from further arms control initiatives.
Objective 4: Assist the former Soviet Union to eliminate & prevent proliferation of biological and chemical weapons and associated capabilities. By assisting Russia and other FSU countries in achieving compliance with the CWC, CTR not only eliminates an existing threat but also supports the global ban on chemical weapons. As one of the two CWC signatories with declared stocks of chemical weapons, Russia's elimination of these weapons would provide a powerful example to other CWC signatories. CTR activities help the U.S. support Russia's chemical weapons destruction effort and its chemical weapons production facility elimination plans. CTR assistance in eliminating a BW production facility in Kazakhstan supports the global ban on biological weapons.
Objective 5: Encourage military reductions & reform, & reduce proliferation threats in the former Soviet Union. To guarantee the irreversibility of threat reduction in the recipient countries, CTR has undertaken a variety of measures to reduce the military and WMD threat in the former Soviet Union. Since 1994, CTR has funded over 800 bilateral military contacts between the U.S. and Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine (Belarus is currently ineligible for CTR assistance). These contacts at all levels of defense and military establishments provide a tangible demonstration of the role of the military in a democratic society and assist the FSU countries in their transition to the western armed forces model. In 1997 the U.S. certified five additional countries - Georgia, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan - as eligible for CTR assistance. In addition to contacts designed to promote demilitarization and defense reform, emphasis will also be on measures/programs designed to assist these countries in improving their border controls to safeguard material and technology related to WMD.
http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/ctr/provisions.htm
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Updated Sunday, December 12, 1999 4:39:51 PM
