THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FACT SHEET

                    Arms Control and Nonproliferation:
                    The Clinton Administration Record

President Clinton has moved aggressively to reduce the threat posed by nuclear weapons to all Americans. Over the past three years, the Administration has made unprecedented progress in curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and reducing the dangerous legacy of Cold War weapons' stockpiles.

President Clinton's agreement with President Yeltsin in January 1994 to detarget strategic missiles has assured that, for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, no Russian missiles are targeted on Americans.

The U.S. has ratified the START II Treaty. When ratified by Russia, START II (in combination with the START I Treaty which we entered into force in December 1994) will eliminate bombers and missiles that carried over 14,000 Russian and American nuclear warheads.

U.S. diplomacy played a critical role in securing the indefinite and unconditional extension of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- the cornerstone of our efforts to control nuclear proliferation.

         North Korea's nuclear program, under international 
      inspection, has been frozen and is to be dismantled under 
      the U.S.-DPRK Agreed Framework.  

           President Clinton's decision last August to negotiate a 
      true zero yield Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has brought 
      within reach the forty-year goal of banning nuclear testing 
      forever.  

           The U.S. persuaded Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakstan to 
      return the former Soviet nuclear weapons on their soil to 
      Russia and to forswear nuclear weapons forever.   

           Through the Nunn-Lugar program, the U.S. is helping Russia
      and the New Independent States to transport, safeguard and 
      destroy their nuclear weapons and to build national systems to 
      secure and safeguard weapons-usable fissile material.

           In Operation Sapphire, we airlifted nearly 600 
      kilograms of highly enriched uranium -- enough for dozens of 
      bombs -- from Kazakstan for safe disposition in the United 
      States.

The U.S. is engaged in unprecedented programs of cooperation with a number of countries, including Russia, Kazakstan, Belarus, and Ukraine, to improve the security of nuclear materials and protect them from theft or diversion. In Russia alone, this program of cooperation is helping to protect many tons of weapons useable nuclear material at more than two dozen locations.

U.S. Customs Service and the FBI have placed the prevention of illicit nuclear trafficking among their top priorities. U.S. law enforcement officials are engaged in training and liaison activities with countries across eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

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