[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H930-H931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A LETTER TO FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC

  (Mr. MARKEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, after exploding six nuclear weapons tests, 
the 

[[Page H931]]
French Government has announced an end to its nuclear testing program. 
Last Saturday's explosion, it turns out, was the ``last thermonuclear 
tango in Paris.''
  First, however, France joined China as the only nation to break a 
nuclear testing moratorium in effect since 1992. Then it was forced to 
admit that radioactive chemicals from its test site in the South 
Pacific have leaked into the sea. When President Chirac visits 
Washington this week, the gentleman from Washington [Mr. McDermott] and 
I will deliver a letter to the French Government along with several of 
our House colleagues praising France's decision to stop detonating 
nuclear test devices.
  In our letter, we also urge France to permanently close its testing 
site in the South Pacific and to begin a complete cleanup operation. 
France's pledge to sign a comprehensive test ban treaty outlawing all 
nuclear weapons is a good position to take. But France should close its 
testing site as an act of good faith with the rest of the world.

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