Tracking Number: 317011
Title: "US, Kazakhstan Sign Nuclear Dismantlement Pact." Vice President Al Gore and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed an agreement that provides for US assistance
with the ultimate destruction of Kazakhstan's nuclear weapons arsenal. (931213)
Author: SHEVIS, JIM (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19931213
Text:
*EUR110
12/13/93 *
U.S., KAZAKHSTAN SIGN NUCLEAR DISMANTLEMENT PACT (Gore, Nazarbayev announce agreement in Almaty) (770) By Jim Shevis USIA Correspondent Almaty, Kazakhstan -- Vice President Al Gore and Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed an agreement December 13 that provides for United States assistance in the ultimate destruction of Kazakhstan's nuclear weapons arsenal.
At a joint press conference following the signing ceremony, Gore told reporters the Safe, Secure Dismantlement (SSD) agreement -- together with other pacts signed during his brief visit here -- "mark the beginning of an entirely new relationship between Kazakhstan and the United States."
Kazakhstan, the second largest of the former Soviet republics, inherited its nuclear weapons when it declared its national independence nearly three years ago, December 16, 1991. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus also have such weapons.
The SSD agreement provides the legal framework for a series of implementing measures for the safe, secure transportation, storage and destruction of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and to guard against their proliferation.
The U.S. Congress has authorized up to $1,200 million to assist the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union for such purposes. Kazakhstan has been allocated $84 million to carry out the implementing measures.
The bulk of initial U.S. assistance -- $70 million -- will go toward helping Kazakhstan meet its destruction obligations under the START I treaty -- for example, destroying underground missile silos.
Susan Koch, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear security and counterproliferation, signed the five implementing agreements, together with General Alibek Kasymov, chief of staff of Kazakhstan's armed forces.
Signing of the SSD agreement capped Gore's short stay in Kazakhstan, the first visit by an American vice president to this Central Asian country.
Perhaps equally as important as the SSD signing was Nazarbayev's announcement that Kazakhstan's parliament had ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) just hours before the SSD signing.
The goals of the NPT are to prevent further spread of nuclear weapons, foster peaceful nuclear cooperation under safeguards, and encourage negotiations to end the nuclear arms race with a view to general and complete disarmament.
Ratification of the NPT is a "historic decision on the part of your parliament," Gore told Nazarbayev. One hundred-sixty other nations already are parties to the treaty.
Strobe Talbott, ambassador-at-large and special assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher on the NIS, later told reporters that there was some resistance to the NPT decision by old-time hard-liners. But in the end the measure passed easily.
"I was told there were 255 deputies present, and it was almost unanimous," he said.
Other important events and announcements during the Gore visit to Kazakhstan:
-- Nazarbayev has accepted President Clinton's invitation to visit him at the White House on February 14 for consultations on matters of mutual interest to their two countries.
-- A reciprocal treaty to encourage and protect investment between the United States and Kazakhstan was reached. Talbott signed instruments of ratification of the treaty for the United States while Foreign Minister Tuleutai Suleymenov signed for Kazakhstan.
Commonly known as a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), the pact "will make great U.S. investment in Kazakhstan possible," Gore said.
"This agreement will assist Kazakhstan in its transition to a market economy by helping to create favorable conditions for U.S. private investment and strengthening the development of the private sector in Kazakhstan," the U.S. Embassy in Almaty said in a statement.
-- A Central Asia enterprise fund has been established to speed private sector investment and enhance overall business development in the region.
Gore said the fund initially will target small- to medium-sized businesses in Kazakhstan and neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Its headquarters will be in Almaty, he said.
"We plan to expand the fund to other Central Asian countries as their reforms progress," Gore said.
Private sector development will remain a major element in future U.S. technical assistance to Kazakhstan, a U.S. Embassy statement said.
Upon his arrival at the Almaty airport with his wife Tipper, Gore said: "We're so determined to build friendship between our countries that, after trying to land twice last night, we came back today."
Gore's original arrival was scheduled a day earlier but because of heavy fog his plane set down in the Kyrgyzstani capital of Bishkek, a 45-minute flight from Almaty.
The vice president and his entourage are scheduled to fly to Moscow December 14 for a meeting of the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Cooperation in Energy and Space, which Gore co-chairs with Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
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File Identification: 12/13/93, EUR110; 12/14/93, ERF202; 12/16/93, NAA407; 12/15/93, NEA307
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Russian; Arabic
Keywords: DISARMAMENT/Policy; KAZAKHSTAN-US RELATIONS/Policy; KAZAKHSTAN/Defense & Military; NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION; TREATIES & AGREEMENTS; GORE, ALBERT/Policy; OFFICIAL VISITS; NAZARBAYEV, NURSULTAN A; KOCH, SUSAN
Thematic Codes: 1UR; 1AC
Target Areas: EU; NE
PDQ Text Link: 317011
USIA Notes: *93121310.EUR
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