20 April 2000

Excerpts: State Department Noon Briefing Transcript

State Department Spokesman Jamie Rubin briefed.

Following is the transcript:

U.S. Department of State
Briefer: James P. Rubin
Thursday, April 20, 2000

Mr. Rubin: Welcome to today's first briefing of the week. Am I right? Yes.

Q: Yes.

Mr. Rubin: No, we didn't brief Monday. The first briefing of the week.

Q: (Inaudible)?

Mr. Rubin: We'll talk about that later. Let me begin in saying the following. Secretary Albright will lead the United States delegation to the Opening Session of the Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty on Monday of next week. She will deliver the US statement to the Conference in the afternoon.

We believe the NPT is an extremely important regime. It's nearly universal and we believe it's an indispensable tool in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons. The Treaty provides an essential foundation for the reduction of existing arsenals and for promoting progress towards nuclear disarmament.

We remain fully committed to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its objectives and, in conjunction with the Secretary's address, the United States will be releasing a report outlining our commitment to promoting nuclear arms control and disarmament, which is one of the issues that we expect to be raised at the conference.

Any questions about that?

Q: How long is she going to stay in New York? Just the one --

Mr. Rubin: I think it's the one day, yes. She will have one other event that I will get more details for you. It's later in the evening, though.

Q: And at this conference, obviously you're going to be on the defensive against people who say that you're not doing enough to disarm. What are you going to say to defend yourselves?

Mr. Rubin: Well, you know, every time there is a Review Conference, there are some countries who have the quite unrealistic notion that disarmament is something that happens overnight and that the United States and Russia have too many nuclear weapons. And they regularly make those points, and I don't expect their points to be much different than they usually are.

The fact is that the United States has led the way among the nuclear powers in trying to reverse the nuclear arms race, and we've done so in a number of ways. We led the way to getting the signing and the negotiation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty since the last Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty five years ago. So since that time, not only do we have a comprehensive test ban, but it's a zero yield Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty with unlimited duration that has been signed and ratified by certain countries.

Some will undoubtedly point out that it hasn't yet been ratified by the United States, and that is undoubtedly true. But it's a treaty that exists now and didn't exist five years ago. That's the objective reality. We have said that General Shalikashvili will lead an effort here in the United States to try to deal with the legitimate concerns of senators so that when the time is ripe we can seek advice and consent of the Senate again and get, hopefully, an outcome that will be more conducive to promoting nonproliferation.

Every senator needs to understand that this is a treaty which the rest of the world regards as part of the implicit bargain that helps the United States avoid new nuclear powers in the world. But since the last Review Conference, we will be able to point to something very concrete; that is, a treaty of permanent duration, zero yield, that didn't exist five years ago.

Similarly, we are now pushing forward on even deeper cuts than were contemplated in 1995, the last time this treaty was reviewed. The United States and the Russians have just finished another discussion in Geneva led by John Holum on our side, in which we have spelled out in greater detail our proposals on the START III side, which include a reduction to 2,000 to 2,500 warheads, which is a massive, massive reduction from the levels that existed at the height of the Cold War, something like 80, 85 percent below where we were at that time.

So these are real, concrete steps towards nuclear arms control and disarmament. They are things that are new and different and better than they were in 1995, and that's the case we'll make. We do expect there to be points made by others, but we think we have quite a significant set of achievements on this very difficult subject of arms control to point to.

Q: Will she be meeting with Ivanov?

Mr. Rubin: He is coming here next week. He will be here on Wednesday and Thursday of next week in Washington. But I don't know whether he is going to be in New York on Monday and whether her schedule includes a meeting with him, but I will check that for you.

Q: Could I take up again on that? You seem to be using disarmament as a synonym for arms reduction. The original NPT, as I understand it, actually calls for disarmament, complete disarmament by the nuclear powers eventually, as an eventual goal.

Is that a goal that the United States subscribes to? Is that something --

Mr. Rubin: I think we have said before that, pursuant to -- there is a law on the books passed by the Congress seeing the eventual goal. And President Clinton has, at the time of the '95 Review Conference, referred to it as an eventual goal. But, in the meantime, since that is not obviously around the corner, we need to work harder and harder on increasing nuclear stability and reducing the threat of nuclear war by reducing the size of nuclear arsenals that are now in existence.

More? Yes.

Q: The same subject. You gave us some --

Mr. Rubin: Have you been going over to the Arms Control Association briefings during this absence this week? (Laughter).

Q: You mentioned -- you gave us something about what happened in Geneva. Can you give us some kind of description, a generic description, of how the meeting went, whether you made progress or where it is?

Mr. Rubin: Yes. I don't think we are in a position to report progress or lack thereof. I can say that John Holum presented detailed proposals and filled out our proposals, both on the START III side and on the ABM side, and these are obviously highly technical discussions. And there wasn't an expectation that this was a kind of bargaining session where we would either move forward or backward but, rather, one of the sessions that is part of the run-up to the summit with President Putin and President Clinton. Part of that run-up will include a meeting next week where this will be discussed in additional detail and discussed by Secretary Albright with Foreign Minister Ivanov.

So the Holum meeting, Foreign Minister Ivanov and Secretary Albright, and then obviously in June the meeting with President Putin.

Q: You said something about a report being released.

Mr. Rubin: Yes, this is a report by our delegation explaining the extent of the American commitment to promoting nuclear arms control and disarmament. The NPT has a sort of an implicit bargain with the nuclear powers committing to work towards arms control and disarmament, and the non-nuclear powers committing not to seek to obtain nuclear weapons. So we will be providing a comprehensive report -- the delegation will -- and I think it will be available that day for those of you who are covering her speech.

Yes, one more on non-proliferation.

Q: Did the Russians reciprocate by giving you detailed proposals on their own?

Mr. Rubin: I have not received a full briefing, but I think we expected to exchange proposals and my understanding is the meeting met expectations.

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