Arms Control

U.S. Defense Secretary William J. Perry on Thursday appealed to Russian lawmakers to approve the sweeping START II arms reduction treaty, but his audience reacted with suspicion and distrust of U.S. intentions, particularly Washington's support for NATO expansion. Perry appeared before the state Duma, or lower house of parliament, just before President Boris N. Yeltsin announced the ouster of security chief Alexander I.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his Russian counterpart announced a "milestone" agreement Monday clarifying the legality of certain U.S. weapons used to defend against slower-flying ballistic missiles. "This important progress assures that we can effectively defend against theater ballistic missiles while ensuring the integrity of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty," Christopher said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny M. Primakov. "We reached a milestone," he said.

Wielding the pen that President John F. Kennedy used 33 years ago on the world's first treaty limiting atomic testing, President Clinton on Tuesday signed what he called "the longest-sought, hardest-fought prize in arms control history"--a pact banning all nuclear explosions. Following Clinton in signing the comprehensive test ban treaty were representatives of the other four acknowledged nuclear weapons states--China, Britain, France and Russia--and a parade of other government leaders.

Arms smuggling to Bosnia and Croatia was larger and more complex than the shipments from Iran and Turkey recently acknowledged by the Clinton administration, and involved such U.S. allies as Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, according to U.S. and Bosnian officials. U.S.

President Clinton, under pressure from Congress to join an international push to ban land mines, is preparing a compromise that would bar some types of mines in three years but permit use of others until a global treaty is negotiated. Administration officials said that Clinton essentially has decided on the new policy and is expected to announce it by midweek, possibly as early as today. They said the White House was discussing final details with congressional leaders Monday.

The United States and other governments that have been calling for an immediate halt to all atomic testing condemned China on Thursday for conducting another underground nuclear explosion. China's test blast early Thursday morning came on the heels of the commemoration of the 50th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, which forced the end of World War II. It also occurred just before France resumes nuclear testing on Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific.

Ignoring Administration warnings that it is inciting a new arms race, the Senate held fast Thursday to plans to erect a missile defense system, unilaterally altering a 1972 treaty. By a 51-49 vote, the Senate rejected a Democrat-led effort to remove language in a 1996 defense spending bill that fundamentally changes the U.S. stance toward the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that restricts U.S. and Russian missile defenses. The Administration has threatened to veto the measure.

Taking a step "back from the nuclear precipice," the United States will seek a worldwide ban on nuclear tests that will not except low-level explosions, President Clinton announced Friday. He made his decision after Defense Secretary William J. Perry concluded that such low-level testing was of only limited value in maintaining the safety and reliability of America's nuclear arsenal.

President Clinton is slated to announce today that he has decided to endorse a permanent end to all nuclear weapons testing, including even the small-scale nuclear explosions that his Administration had sought to exempt from a future worldwide test ban, senior U.S. officials said Thursday.

Republican drums are beating on Capitol Hill to kill the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and to deploy missile defenses nationwide. Again, the arms-control community is up in arms, claiming that even the Clinton Administration's limited plans for missile defenses will kill prospects for strategic arms reductions. Sound familiar?