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Congressional group calls for dialogue with allies to block proliferation

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, April 27, 2001

WASHINGTON Ñ A congressional panel has called for increased cooperation with U.S. allies to tighten controls on arms exports.

The Study Group on Enhanced Multilateral Export Controls for U.S. National Security recommends that U.S. allies be offered expanded defense cooperation with Washington in exchange for adopting a more effective set of arms export controls. This would include a new framework that sets uniform standards, Middle East Newsline reported.

The report recommends a uniform standard of arms exports control based on the Wassenaar Arrangement, established in 1996 and meant to control conventional weapons and dual-use components and technologies. The regime has 33 members.

"The Study Group therefore urges President George W. Bush to begin a dialogue with U.S. allies and friends about the need for a new approach to restraints on technology transfers and to launch a coordinated diplomatic initiative to achieve step-by-step reforms of the Wassenaar Arrangement," the group's report said.

"The Study Group recommends that the president make technology transfer issues a high priority in bilateral relations with Russia and the People's Republic of China and urge other allies and friends to do so as well."

The congressional panel Ñ established in October 1999 Ñ said the focus should be on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This would include a dialogue with China and Russia to prevent WMD proliferation.

In addition, the report urged the Bush administration and Congress to agree on what it termed a "balanced and updated" Export Administration Act, legislation that has been a source of dispute during most of President Bill Clinton's term.

Another recommendation is for a presidential commission to facilitate cooperation from the U.S. defense industry to enforce control on arms exports.

On Wednesday, Bush's nominee for the post of U.S. assistant secretary for political-military affairs, Lincoln Bloomfield, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the State Department's export licensing policy needs to be "faster, more user friendly, and simpler." Bloomfield pledged to conduct a review of department policy.

Friday, April 27, 2001

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