News

Memorandum: No. 111-M

May 28, 1996

MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS

Secretary of Defense William Perry will leave Washington Sunday, June 2 to visit Ukraine, Germany; and Portugal. He will return to Washington on Thursday, June 6.

On June 3, Perry will visit L'viv, Ukraine where he will attend the opening ceremonies of Peace Shield ‘96, the Ukraine- hosted multilateral peacekeeping exercise conducted in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace. About 150 troops of the Germany- based U.S. 1st Infantry Division will participate in the exercise along with 700 Ukrainian soldiers and troops from other East and Central European countries, including Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova, Slovakia, and Romania. Secretary Perry also will engage in discussions on bilateral military to military relations and security issues with senior officials from the participating countries.

On June 4, Perry and Ukrainian Defense Minister Valerie Shmarov will travel to Pervomaysk, Ukraine to visit the site of the missile silo that they jointly destroyed in January of this year. While at the site, Perry and Shmarov will sign two amendments that will increase existing Cooperative Threat Reduction implementing agreements by up to $43.1 million. They also will visit a housing site built with U.S.-provided Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Funds and a former warhead storage facility.

In Germany, Perry will speak to the graduating class of the College of Strategic Studies and Defense Economics at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch. Perry's appearance at the Marshall Center follows through on his pledge to meet each new class in residence.

Perry will arrive in Lisbon, Portugal, the afternoon of June 5, where he will meet with senior government and military officials to discuss bilateral military-to-military and regional security issues.

On June 6, Perry will visit U.S. Air Force personnel and facilities at Lajes Field, Azores, as well as meet with local government officials.

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