THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New York, New York)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release September 6, 2000
JOINT STATEMENT
U.S. - RUSSIAN
STRATEGIC STABILITY COOPERATION INITIATIVE
Implementation Plan
The U.S. will brief Russia on the update of the National Intelligence Estimate of the ballistic missile threat that has just been completed, and Russia will provide its latest assessment.
The United States and Russia agreed to conduct a U.S.-Russian planning and simulation exercise in February, 2001 at Colorado Springs, Colorado and a U.S.-Russian field training exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas by late 2001 or early 2002. Planning meetings for the 2001 exercise will continue in Moscow in September and November-December at the Joint National Test Facility in Colorado Springs. Joint TMD exercise expert talks will also discuss the possibility of reciprocal invitation of observers to actual firings of TMD systems.
By the end of this fall, the United States and Russia expect to begin preparation of the Moscow site for the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) and begin renovation of the building that will house the center, as well as begin drafting concept of operations and standard operating procedures documents. The United States and Russia intend to commence operations at the JDEC in June of 2001, with full operations to begin in September 2001. Regular meetings of working groups under the Joint Commission will take place in coming months.
The United States and Russia have agreed to set as an objective the completion of a bilateral agreement on a pre-launch notification system for launches of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles by the APEC summit in November, while also reaching agreement on how the system will be opened up to the voluntary participation of all interested countries. They will meet to intensify negotiations in September.
The United States and Russia will work to reach consensus among MTCR partners at the October 9-13 Plenary, as well as with other countries, on plans for a global missile non-proliferation approach.
Experts will meet this fall to review and approve additional warhead safety and security issues for expanded cooperation related to the CTBT. Experts will meet before the end of this year to consider expanded cooperation in the area of computations, experiments and materials. Experts in CTBT monitoring and verification will be scheduled to meet in late 2000 or early 2001 to consider expanded cooperation in this area.
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