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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