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Slovakia on destruction of SS-23 missiles

On August 18, Jamie Rubin, spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said the following in reaction to media reports that Slovakia and Bulgaria possess SS-23 missiles: "Missile non-proliferation is a top priority of this Administration. As that reporting indicated, we pursue energetically many different ways to reduce the threat of proliferation. We believe that the kind of missiles involved here are missiles in the so called Category I missiles, under the MTCR. So we have discussed with a number of foreign governments - including Bulgaria and Slovakia - the importance of eliminating such missiles. These discussions have been conducted as part of our normal bilateral security and non-proliferation dialogues. We think the kind of steps we've taken in the past have resulted in success in other cases like Hungary and Argentina and elsewhere.

"I am not in a position to state the responses of these governments, and that is - I welcome you talking to those governments and seeing what they say about it. But from our standpoint, this is an action we are taking with friendly governments. We are prepared to be of assistance in trying to destroy these systems that have this inherent capability."

On August 19,1997 the Press Office of the Slovak Government issued a statement saying that the issue of elimination of SS-23 missiles has been a topic of expert level discussions between Slovakia and the U.S.A. The talks have not produced concrete results yet. The Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs is open to renewing the talks and assumes that the American offer to help in destroying these missiles is still valid.

In a related statement, the spokesman of the Slovak Foreign Ministry, Milan Tokar, said that the existence of SS-23s had political as well as military and technical dimensions. The Slovak Foreign Ministry believes that the solution to this question will be reached on the basis of friendly cooperation reflecting interest in enhancing security in Central Europe, said Mr. Tokar.

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SOURCE: Newsletter of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Washington, D.C. Volume 5, Number 5 August - September 1997