U.S. President on Russo-American uranium treaty

U.S. President George Bush confirmed the importance for Washington of The Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation Concerning the Disposition of Highly Enriched Uranium Extracted from Nuclear Weapons signed February 18, 1993.

The main aim in the sphere of national security for the U.S. is to ensure that nuclear materials extracted from Russian nuclear weapons are used only for peaceful purposes with due measures of transparency and protection of these materials from unauthorized use, says Bush's letter sent on Wednesday to the U.S. Congress.

The stockpiling on the territory of the Russian Federation of big volumes of nuclear materials that can be used in weapons continues to pose a special and extraordinary threat to the U.S. national security and foreign policy, reads the letter of the American President.

This letter was sent by Mr. Bush to Congress in connection with the demand of American legislation that any special authorities of the administration should be stopped after the calendar year is out if the president does not issue a notification on the necessity to extend them.

Mr. Bush extended for one more year the validity of the instruction signed June 21, 2000 by U.S. President Bill Clinton on giving the American Administration special authorities to protect the property of the Russian government received in the framework of the realization of the Russo-American agreement of 1993 on U.S. territory.

The agreement was concluded by the two countries to dispose of highly enriched uranium extracted from Russian nuclear weapons, and to turn it into low-enriched uranium for further commercial use as fuel for nuclear reactors.

Financial means Russia received as a result of this joint project were protected on U.S. territory by Clinton's instruction from any property claims and other legal actions on the part of any foreign-basedclaimants.

The necessity of such protection was caused by the Swiss firm Noga's attempts to arrest through a U.S. law court the Russian government's property during arbitration trials on a number of deals concluded earlier by this company with its partners in Russia.