NUNN-LUGAR COOPERATIVE
THREAT REDUCTION PROGRAM

Lugar-Obama Bill introduced

U.S. Sens. Dick Lugar and Barack Obama today introduced comprehensive legislation to expand the cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons. It is patterned after the Nunn-Lugar program that focuses on weapons of mass to destruction in the former Soviet Union. The new legislation also will expand the detection and interdiction of weapons and materials of mass destruction.

Lugar (R-IN) and Obama (D-IL) launched the bill at a joint appearance this morning at the Council on Foreign Relations, in Washington, DC.

“We are convinced that the United States can and should do more to eliminate conventional weapons stockpiles and assist other nations in detecting and interdicting weapons of mass destruction. We believe that these functions are underfunded, fragmented, and in need of high-level support,” Lugar said.

“The U.S. government’s current response to threats from vulnerable conventional weapons stockpiles is dispersed between several programs at the Department of State. We believe that the planning, coordination, and implementation of this function should be consolidated into one office at the State Department with a budget that is commensurate with the threat posed by these weapons," Lugar added

“The Lugar-Obama bill creates a single office dedicated to supporting the detection and interdiction of WMD. The State Department engages in several related anti-terrorism and export control assistance programs to foreign countries. But these programs are focused on other stages of the threat, not on the detection and interdiction of WMD cargo. Thus, we believe there is a gap in our defenses that needs to be filled,” Lugar said.

Lugar and Obama traveled together to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan in August to oversee a number of Nunn-Lugar projects. In Ukraine they saw a convention weapons storage and destruction facility that is typical of the focus of the new legislation.
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Lugar Releases 2005 Nunn-Lugar Report

After returning from his trip to Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan with Foreign Relations Committee member Barack Obama, Lugar released the following report on the progress of the Nunn-Lugar Program.

Highlights of the report include:

• New Nunn-Lugar Biological Agreement Signed in Ukraine
• Nunn-Lugar Transports Dangerous Germs to U.S.
• Lugar's Extraordinary Summer of Diplomatic Activity
• Lugar, Obama Urge Destruction of Conventional Weapons Stockpiles
• Lugar, Obama Inspect Russian Warhead Destruction Facility
• Photos from the Lugar, Obama Trip

Nunn-Lugar to destroy Albanian Chemical Weapons Stash
First Time Nunn-Lugar Used Outside Former Soviet Union

For the first time the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program will be used outside the former Soviet Union. It will be used to destroy chemical weapons in Albania.

Last year Congress approved the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, authored by U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, which lets the President use up to $50 million in Nunn-Lugar funds for activities outside the former Soviet Union. President Bush has signed the authorization for Nunn-Lugar work in Albania.

“The Nunn-Lugar Program has established a deep reservoir of experience and talent that could be applied to non-proliferation objectives around the world. The original Nunn-Lugar bill was concerned with the former Soviet Union, because that is where the vast majority of weapons and materials of mass destruction were. Today, we must be prepared with money and expertise to extend the Nunn-Lugar concept wherever it can be usefully applied. I applaud Albania’s leadership in seeking United States assistance in destroying these dangerous weapons,” said Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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See photos from Albania

  “Nunn-Lugar in an Election Year”
Delivered by Senator Dick Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at the National Press Club, Washington, DC
August 11, 2004

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, vulnerability to the use of weapons of mass destruction has been the number one national security dilemma confronting the United States. After many years, the events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent public discovery of al-Qaeda's methods, capabilities, and intentions finally brought our vulnerability to the forefront.

The War on Terrorism proceeds in a world awash with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and materials. Most of these weapons and materials are stored in the United States and Russia, but they also exist in India, Pakistan, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Israel, Great Britain, France, China, and perhaps other nations.

We must anticipate that terrorists will use weapons of mass destruction if allowed the opportunity. The minimum standard for victory in this war is the prevention of any terrorist cell from obtaining weapons or materials of mass destruction. We must make certain that all sources of WMD are identified and systematically guarded or destroyed.
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