PRESS RELEASE

11 April 2000

Clinton, Gore Missing in Action
in Nuclear Control Efforts

Neither Clinton nor Gore plan to attend the 187-nation conference on control of nuclear weapons, set to convene on 24 April in New York. The NPT Review Conference mandate includes setting objectives for the next five years for systematic and progressive efforts leading to nuclear disarmament.

Vice President Gore attended the 1995 meeting which extended the NPT, and many states followed the US lead by sending high-level representatives to the meeting. Today, the US has placed nuclear non-proliferation at the top of its national security agenda. Yet the Administration and Congress have placed threat reduction and elimination on the backburner as building a missile defense becomes the preferred means to counter proliferation. Although the issues are no less important, the level of political representation has been visibly reduced.

Ambassador James Leonard, a former disarmament negotiator, said, "The notable absence of any senior official in New York can be explained in one of two ways: either the Administration no longer thinks that the NPT is important, or else its policy makers are embarrassed at their failure to follow through on the promises made five years ago. One hopes that it is the latter and that the pending Russian ratification of START II will trigger a burst of meaningful progress on bilateral nuclear disarmament."

Administration officials anticipate a heated debate and little progress on scrapping nuclear weapons. Instead, the Administration is basing US security on winning any new arms race. US consideration of building anti-missile-missiles in the National Missile Defense plan is widely condemned for inviting a new anti-anti-missile missile arms race. Britain, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, and many other states are calling for more progress on reducing and eliminating the nuclear threat rather than accepting proliferation and planning a last-ditch defense.

"The Clinton Administration and the US Congress are running away from the fight to eliminate nuclear weapons and opting for a new arms race," said Dan Plesch, director of BASIC.

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