On February 1, 1992, the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation agreed in a Joint Statement that ‘Russia and the United States do not regard each other as potential adversaries’ and stated further that, ‘We will work to remove any remnants of cold war hostility, including taking steps to reduce our strategic arsenals’.

In the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in exchange for the non-nuclear-weapon states agreeing not to seek a nuclear weapons capability nor to assist other non-nuclear-weapon states in doing so, the United States agreed to seek the complete elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide, as declared in the preamble to the Treaty, which states that it is a goal of the parties to the Treaty to ‘facilitate the cessation of the manufacture of nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their existing stockpiles, and the elimination from national arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of their delivery’ as well as in Article VI of the Treaty, which states that ‘each of the parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament’.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) Treaty and the agreement by the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation on June 17, 1992, to reduce the strategic nuclear arsenals of each country to a level between 3,000 and 3,500 weapons are commendable intermediate stages in the process of achieving the policy goals described in paragraphs (1) and (2).

The current international era of cooperation provides greater opportunities for achieving worldwide reduction and control of nuclear weapons and material than any time since the emergence of nuclear weapons 50 years ago.

It is in the security interests of both the United States and the world community for the President and the Congress to begin the process of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in every country through multilateral agreements and other appropriate means.

In a 1991 study, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that: ‘The appropriate new levels of nuclear weapons cannot be specified at this time, but it seems reasonable to the committee that U.S. strategic forces could in time be reduced to 1,000–2,000 nuclear warheads, provided that such a multilateral agreement included appropriate levels and verification measures for the other nations that possess nuclear weapons. This step would require successful implementation of our proposed post-START U.S.-Soviet reductions, related confidence-building measures in all the countries involved, and multilateral security cooperation in areas such as conventional force deployments and planning.’.

to encourage and facilitate the denuclearization of Ukraine, Byelarus, and Kazakhstan, as agreed upon in the Lisbon ministerial meeting of May 23, 1992;

to rapidly complete and submit for ratification by the United States the treaty incorporating the agreement of June 17, 1992, between the United States and the Russian Federation to reduce the number of strategic nuclear weapons in each country’s arsenal to a level between 3,000 and 3,500;

to facilitate the ability of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Byelarus, and Kazakhstan to implement agreed mutual reductions under the START Treaty, and under the Joint Understanding of June 16–17, 1992 between the United States and the Russian Federation, on an accelerated timetable, so that all such reductions can be completed by the year 2000;

to build on the agreement reached in the Joint Understanding of June 16–17, 1992, by entering into multilateral negotiations with the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, France, and the People’s Republic of China, and, at an appropriate point in that process, enter into negotiations with other nuclear armed states in order to reach subsequent stage-by-stage agreements to achieve further reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in all countries;

to continue and extend cooperative discussions with the appropriate authorities of the former Soviet military on means to maintain and improve secure command and control over nuclear forces;

in consultation with other member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other allies, to initiate discussions to bring tactical nuclear weapons into the arms control process; and

to ensure that the United States assistance to securely transport and store, and ultimately dismantle, former Soviet nuclear weapons and missiles for such weapons is being properly and effectively utilized.

the actions that the United States has taken, and the actions the United States plans to take during the next 12 months, to achieve each of the goals set forth in paragraphs (1) through (6) of subsection (b); and

the actions that have been taken by the Russian Federation, by other former Soviet republics, and by other countries to achieve those goals.