[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 97 (Wednesday, June 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5977-H5978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          FRENCH NUCLEAR TESTS

  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and [[Page H5978]] extend his remarks and 
include extraneous material.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. President Jacques 
Chirac of France has announced France will explode eight nuclear bombs 
in the South Pacific beginning this September.
  Mr. Speaker, this is just what we need after 170 countries signed up 
to uphold the integrity of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. France 
currently has the world's third largest stockpile of nuclear bombs and 
the fourth largest navy in the world, and after conducting almost 200 
nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, and in the ocean, and under a 
South Pacific island atoll over the past 20 years--it is hard to 
believe that France's military establishment is still not sure if that 
nuclear trigger is working or not.
  Mr. Speaker, give me a break. Why should we tell countries like 
India, Pakistan, Japan, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran not to get into the 
development of nuclear bombs when a major Western power like France 
does this without due consideration to the environment or the lives and 
welfare of the peoples of the South Pacific?
  What madness. The height of hypocrisy. Mr. Speaker, I ask the good 
citizens and people of France--if you want nuclear tests to continue, 
do it in France, and don't bring this ugly monstor to the South 
Pacific.
  Mr. Speaker, I include the following for the Record.

               [From the Washington Post, June 14, 1995]

                France Says It Will Stage Nuclear Tests

                         (By William Drozdiak)

       Paris, June 13.--President Jacques Chirac announced tonight 
     that France will resume nuclear weapons testing in September 
     and conduct eight tests in the South Pacific before next May 
     so that it can sign a comprehensive test ban treaty by the 
     end of next year.
       Chirac told reporters on the eve of his first presidential 
     trip abroad that his decision was crucial to ensure the 
     reliability and security of the country's nuclear weaponry 
     until France--which has the world's third-largest nuclear 
     arsenal--develops laboratory simulation methods that would 
     obviate future test blasts.
       ``I made this decision because I considered it necessary in 
     the higher interest of our nation to authorize the end of 
     this series of tests. This decision is, of course, 
     irrevocable,'' he said.
       U.S. government officials said they were disappointed by 
     Chirac's decision and worried that it could erode confidence 
     in the promise by all nuclear powers to work toward an early 
     test ban. That pledge was an important factor in persuading 
     more than 170 countries to embrace a permanent extension of 
     the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty at a review conference 
     two months ago.
       President Clinton said in 1993, during a worldwide nuclear 
     moratorium, that the United States planned no further nuclear 
     tests, but he indicated he might reconsider if other nuclear 
     powers resumed such blasts. A senior U.S. official said 
     today, however, that France's announcement ``won't affect our 
     own policy [and] will not lead us to resume nuclear 
     testing.''
       Only China has continued nuclear weapons testing in the 
     past two years, drawing widespread international protests. 
     U.S. officials said the French decision and its impact will 
     be discussed when Chirac arrives in Washington Wednesday to 
     meet with President Clinton before leaders of the Group of 
     Seven industrialized democracies gather for a summit later 
     this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
       Chirac said a panel of military experts he consulted in 
     making his decision had
      unanimously recommended that France complete a series of 
     underground tests that was interrupted in April 1992 so 
     that its independent nuclear deterrent force of nearly 500 
     strategic warheads will remain effective into the 21st 
     century.
       When President Francois Mitterrand halted nuclear testing 
     in 1992, he said that France must set an example for the rest 
     of the world in renouncing all such tests in the hope that 
     other nuclear powers would sign a comprehensive test ban.
       Mitterrand predicted that any of his possible successors as 
     president would be inhibited from overturning his ban on 
     nuclear tests by threat of angry protests at home and abroad. 
     But Chirac tried tonight to shift the blame to Mitterrand, 
     saying his decision to abort the testing program was 
     premature because simulation techniques had not been 
     perfected.
       Seeking to thwart a potential outcry, Chirac said he had 
     notified France's main allies, as well as Mitterrand, 
     opposition leaders and the Australian and New Zealand 
     governments. He insisted that the tests were harmless to the 
     environment, and he invited ecologists to visit Mururoa Atoll 
     in French Polynesia to monitor the explosions.
       [Nevertheless, Australia and New Zealand angrily announced 
     they would freeze defense ties with France over its decision, 
     and Australian union leaders and politicians called for a 
     boycott of French goods, the Reuter news agency reported. 
     ``Australia deplores France's decision to resume nuclear 
     testing in the South Pacific,'' Prime Minister Paul Keating 
     said. ``What we are seeing is the arrogant action of a 
     European colonial power. . . . They have yet to understand 
     that as members of the Pacific community we expect something 
     different,'' New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger told 
     parliament.
       [Japan also protested, Reuter reported. ``The French 
     decision seriously betrays the trust of non-nuclear states,'' 
     Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told French Foreign 
     Minister Herve de Charette in a telephone conversation.]
       For months, Chirac has been under intense pressure from 
     France's military establishment, largely dominated by his 
     Gaullist party supporters, to ensure the country's future 
     nuclear capability.
       French defense experts said the military leadership had 
     urged up to a dozen tests to verify the effectiveness of 
     warhead stocks; to establish the effectiveness of a new 
     warhead for the country's M-5 submarine-launched missile; to 
     enhance computer-simulation plans; and to experiment with 
     miniature warheads.
       The experts said such tests would be necessary not only to 
     check the status of the hardware but also to prepare for any 
     change in strategy in the post-Cold War era. This could 
     include a shift from the old threat of inflicting intolerable 
     damage on a enemy through massive retaliation to a new French 
     strategy of focusing on tactical battlefield weapons that 
     could be used against specific targets.

     

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