Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana

U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced the following accomplishments for the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program in March:

· 10 Strategic nuclear warheads deactivated;

· 2 Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos eliminated;

· 4 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured; and

· 1 biological monitoring station built and equipped in Kazakhstan.

On April 1, Lugar authored an oped on the National Interest’s website calling for action on renewal of the START Treaty, “If we do not move quickly on talks to renew the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the foundation of the U.S.-Russian strategic relationship is at risk of collapsing. The START verification regime is a proven system of on-site inspections and detailed data disclosure that provides each side with confidence that the other is living up to its obligations. Without it, the rug is ripped out from under the 2003 Moscow Treaty - which calls for dramatic reductions in Russian and American nuclear arsenals down to seventeen hundred warheads each - because it has no verification provisions of its own.” http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=21184.

Also on April 1, Lugar was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC discussing the importance of the START Treaty and relations with Russia. Watch the interview via Lugar’s YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OeFLID0AVs&feature=channel_page.

In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Sam 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. In 2003, Congress adopted the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act, which authorized the Nunn-Lugar program to operate outside the former Soviet Union to address proliferation threats. In 2004, Nunn-Lugar funds were committed for the first time outside of the former Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons in Albania, under a Lugar-led expansion of the program. In 2007, Lugar announced the complete destruction of Albania’s chemical weapons.

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard now totals 7,514 strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 752 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 498 ICBM silos eliminated, 143 ICBM mobile launchers destroyed, 633 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) eliminated, 476 SLBM launchers eliminated, 31 nuclear submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles destroyed, 155 bomber eliminated, 906 nuclear air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels eliminated, 433 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured, upgraded security at 24 nuclear weapons storage sites, and built and equipped 18 biological monitoring stations. Perhaps most importantly, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus 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.

Lugar makes annual oversight trips to Nunn-Lugar sites around the world.

The Nunn-Lugar program: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/

The Nunn-Lugar scorecard: http://lugar.senate.gov/nunnlugar/scorecard.html

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