The Albanian Defense Ministry announced destruction of its chemicals weapons stockpile utilizing, for the first time outside the former Soviet Union, the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
“Let me emphasize that, the cooperation and support from the United States of America, through the program on the reduction of chemical weapon threat, in the framework of the war against terrorism, initiated and supported by the honorable Senators (Sam) Nunn and (Dick) Lugar, has brought about the successful completion of this project,” said Deputy Albanian Defense Minister Petrit Karabina.
“The work on the destruction of chemical weapons in our country began after the American Congress approved the funds for this project,” Karabina said in a statement last week. “In December 2002, a quantity of 16 tons of chemical weapons was discovered. This quantity contained many of the dangerous elements known today.”
Lugar visited the Albanian chemical weapons storage site in August 2004 to discuss security upgrades and elimination planning. Destruction equipment was moved into place last year.
“I commend the Government of Albania for their close cooperation and efforts to eliminate these weapons of mass destruction. The world is safer and a significant contribution has been made to regional and international security,” Lugar said.
In 2003, Congress approved the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, authored by Lugar, which lets the President use up to $50 million in Nunn-Lugar funds for activities outside the former Soviet Union. President Bush signed the authorization for Nunn-Lugar work in Albania in 2004.
“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 was 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,” said Lugar, the ranking member and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and former Senator Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. This program has provided U.S. funding and expertise to help the former Soviet Union safeguard and dismantle its enormous stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, related materials, and delivery systems.
The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 6,982 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 651 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 485 ICBM silos eliminated, 101 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 612 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 436 SLBM launchers eliminated, 30 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 155 bomber eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 351 nuclear weapons transport train shipments, 12 nuclear weapons storage site security upgrades, and 9 biological monitoring stations built and equipped. Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan are nuclear weapons free as a result of cooperative efforts under the Nunn-Lugar program. Those countries were the third, fourth and eighth largest nuclear weapons powers in the world.
Beyond nuclear elimination, the Nunn-Lugar program secures and destroys chemical weapons and biological weapons, and has worked to reemploy scientists and facilities related to weapons of mass destruction in peaceful research initiatives. The International Science and Technology Centers, of which the United States is the leading sponsor, engaged 58,000 former weapons scientists in peaceful work. The International Proliferation Prevention Program has funded 750 projects involving 14,000 former weapons scientists and created some 580 new peaceful high-tech jobs.
Lugar makes annual oversight trips to Nunn-Lugar sites in the former Soviet Union. This August, the visit will include events in Moscow and Astana commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar program.
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