United Press International, June 4, 2000
Russia, US Sign Deal on Plutonium Disposal
The United States and Russia will permanently dispose of 68 metric tons
of weapons-grade plutonium and U.S. military personnel will for the first
time have a permanent presence on Russian soil, CNN reported Sunday.
The deal is one of several President Clinton and his Russian counterpart,
Vladimir Putin, will announce at their yet-to-be concluded summit meeting.
The two sides have also worked out a deal to build a new high-tech
Moscow-based center that will share information on global missile launches,
CNN said.
As part of the deal, for the first time, U.S. military personnel will
be permanently stationed at the center. Plans for the center have reportedly
been on for several months. The site is expected to be functional within
a year, according to CNN.
Both nations also agreed to safely and permanently dispose weapons-grade
plutonium over the next 20 years, CNN said. The deal is expected to cost
Russia $1.75 billion dollars, which Clinton hopes the Group of Eight nations
will pay for.
Earlier, Clinton joined Putin at the Kremlin for a day of summit talks
focused on nuclear arms-control issues. The two leaders planned to hold
a joint news conference at the Kremlin after meeting for some 4 hours with
top U.S. and Russian officials gathered for the two-day summit, Putin's
first as president.
Clinton and Putin met for an hour and a half with their top foreign
affairs advisors and translators before joining a larger group of 14 top
Russian and U.S. officials, including Secretary of state Madeleine Albright
and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, National Security Advisor Sandy
Berger and his Russian counterpart.
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