(State Department says reductions promote stability) (710)

Following is a State Department fact sheet on the completion of the
third and final phase of reductions in strategic offensive arms
required by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I).

(begin fact sheet)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE
START TREATY FINAL REDUCTIONS

December 5, 2001, marks the successful completion of the third and
final phase of reductions in strategic offensive arms required by the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START Treaty). The United States and
Russia each now maintain fewer than the Treaty's mandated limits of
1,600 deployed strategic delivery vehicles and 6,000 accountable
warheads, a reduction of some 30-to-40 percent of aggregate levels
since 1994, when the Treaty entered into force. In addition, all
nuclear warheads and strategic offensive arms have been removed from
Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine.

The START Treaty reductions, inspection regime, notifications and
telemetry exchanges have produced stabilizing changes that have
contributed to international security and strategic stability.

The START Treaty was signed in Moscow on July 31, 1991, by President
George H.W. Bush, for the United States, and President Mikhail
Gorbachev, for the Soviet Union. The instruments of ratification of
the START Treaty were exchanged in Budapest, Hungary, in December
1994, after several years of sustained effort to adapt the Treaty's
original bilateral implementation regime to a new multilateral context
that established Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine as the legal
successors to the Soviet Union for the purposes of the START Treaty.

Although the START Treaty's required reductions have been met within
the required seven years, the Treaty, including its inspection and
verification provisions, remains in force. The Treaty's fifteen-year
duration may be extended by agreement among the Parties for successive
five-year periods.

A significant aspect of the START Treaty's regime lies in its use of
rigorous, equitable and verifiable methods to monitor its
implementation. The right to perform on-site inspections and other
verification measures will continue for the duration of the Treaty, in
order to verify compliance. In addition, data exchanges and
notifications on each side's strategic systems and facilities as well
as exchanges of telemetry data from missile flight tests will help to
maintain confidence in the status and level of the Parties' strategic
forces. The Parties will also continue to meet as necessary within the
framework of the Treaty's implementing body, the Joint Compliance and
Inspection Commission, which the Treaty established to ensure
continued effective implementation of the Treaty and to seek
resolution of compliance and implementation issues.

START has achieved significant reductions from Cold War nuclear force
levels. President George W. Bush is committed to achieve significant
additional cuts in offensive nuclear forces to the lowest possible
number of nuclear weapons consistent with our national security needs
and our obligations to friends and allies. The United States seeks to
create a new strategic framework with Russia based on a broad array of
cooperation on political, economic, and security issues, including
substantial reductions in the number of operationally deployed nuclear
forces and measures to promote confidence and transparency. Thus,
during the November 2001 Washington/Crawford Summit, President Bush
announced that the United States will further reduce the number of
operationally deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 over the
next ten years, a level consistent with American security.

FINAL START I TREATY STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE ARMS LEVELS
DECEMBER 5, 2001

Deployed ICBMs and Their Associated Launchers, Deployed SLBMs and
Their Associated Launchers, and Deployed Heavy Bombers (Central Limit
1,600):

United States                   Former Soviet Union
                                               Projected(1)
Dec. 5, 1994  Dec. 5, 2001      Dec. 5, 1994   Dec. 5, 2001
1,838         1,238             1,956          1,140

Warheads Attributed to Deployed ICBMs, Deployed SLBMs, and Deployed
Heavy Bombers (Central Limit 6,000):

United States                   Former Soviet Union
                                               Projected
Dec. 5, 1994  Dec. 5, 2001      Dec. 5, 1994   Dec. 5, 2001
8,824         5,949             9,568          5,520

Warheads Attributed to Deployed ICBMs and Deployed SLBMs (Central
Limit 4,900):

United States                   Former Soviet Union
                                               Projected
Dec. 5, 1994  Dec. 5, 2001      Dec. 5, 1994   Dec. 5, 2001
6,793         4,812             8,638          4,900

Throw-weight of Deployed ICBMs and Deployed SLBMs (Central Limit 3,600
metric tons):

United States                   Former Soviet Union
                                               Projected
Dec. 5, 1994  Dec. 5, 2001      Dec. 5, 1994   Dec. 5, 2001
2,176.5       1,732.5                5,930.4          3,320

(1) The Parties will exchange formal force data in January 2002. The
START I Treaty prohibits the U.S. Government from releasing the other
Parties' final Phase III data until April 2002.

(end fact sheet)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)