FOR THE RECORD: Experts warn Clinton about Ukraine's nukes

A group of military experts and Soviet policy specialists on January 25 sent an open letter to the Clinton administration urging President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore Jr. to take immediate action to control nuclear arms in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. News about the letter and its text was circulated by the Business Wire.

The letter was initiated by the Fourth Freedom Forum, a private foundation based in Goshen, Ind. Its signatories included David Cortright, president of the forum, as well as Dr. Sergey Rogov, director of the Center for National Security and International Relations of the Supreme Soviet of Russia; former White House Science Advisor Jerome B. Wiesner of MIT; Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll, Jr., U.S. Navy (ret.); Stephen F. Cohen, Princeton University; Marshall I. Goldman, Harvard University; and Admiral Noel Gayler, U.S. Navy (ret.).

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President:

We write to congratulate you on your electoral victory, and to call attention to an urgent matter of nuclear security policy.

Immediate steps should be taken to address the problem of de facto proliferation and "loose nukes" in the former Soviet Union. The government of Ukraine has been slow in ratifying the START agreement and may be reluctant to fulfill its pledge to become a non-nuclear republic. A failure to eliminate nuclear weapons in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics could have grave consequences for the future of nuclear non-proliferation.

Efforts to control nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union should be priority concerns for the first 100 days of your new administration. We encourage you to work with the governments of Russia and the CIS republics to continue and accelerate the arms reduction process.

We also propose a carrot-and-stick approach of applying economic leverage on the former soviet republics to fulfill their non-nuclear pledges. The United States government, in cooperation with other major powers, should develop a package of economic incentives and, if need be, economic sanctions, to ensure that Ukraine and other former Soviet republics ratify the START agreement and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Controlling and reducing nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union is an urgent security objective that requires the priority attention of the U.S. government.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 31, 1993, No. 5, Vol. LXI

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