[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 67 (Monday, May 4, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1052-E1053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              PRESIDENT NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV OF KAZAKHSTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 4, 2009

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend President 
Nursultan Nazarbayev on his offer to host a nuclear fuel bank in 
Kazakhstan administered by the International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA), which the United States would expect to meet the highest 
international standards for safety, security and safeguards. It is my 
understanding that the U.S. Department of State has welcomed President 
Nazarbayev's announcement, and is prepared in principle to support this 
offer. In fact, even today, Secretary Hillary Clinton is meeting with 
Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin, and I understand that this 
important measure is on their agenda.
  I am pleased by these series of events, especially in view of 
history. From 1949 to 1991, the Soviet Union used Kazakhstan as its 
nuclear testing ground, exploding more than 500 nuclear bombs and 
exposing more than 1.5 million Kazakhs to nuclear radiation. When the 
Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Kazakhstan inherited the world's fourth 
largest nuclear arsenal and the second largest nuclear test site. While 
Kazakhstan could have retained enough highly enriched uranium to 
produce 20 nuclear bombs, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in 
cooperation with the United States, and under the auspices of the Nunn-
Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, voluntarily 
dismantled and shut down the nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk.
  Kazakhstan has since signed with the United States amendments to a 
bilateral agreement on the nonproliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction which has moved the two nations towards a new level of 
cooperation in preventing the threat of bio-terrorism.
  As a Pacific Islander, I have a special affinity for President 
Nazarbayev and the people of Kazakhstan. From 1946 to 1958, the United 
States detonated 66 nuclear weapons in the Republic of the Marshall 
Islands (RMI) including the first hydrogen bomb, or Bravo shot, which 
was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. 
Acknowledged as the greatest nuclear explosion ever detonated, the 
Bravo test vaporized six islands and created a mushroom cloud 25 miles 
in diameter. If one were to calculate the net yield of tests conducted 
by the U.S. in the RMI, it would be equivalent to the detonation of 1.7 
Hiroshima bombs every day for 12 years. Regrettably, the U.S. has never 
fully made right the suffering of Pacific Islanders who, then and now, 
face severe health problems and even genetic anomalies for generations 
to come.
  Through His Excellency Kanat Saudabayev, now Secretary of State for 
the Republic of Kazakhstan, I learned of President Nazarbayev's 
historic leadership in the cause of nuclear nonproliferation and, since 
my visit to Semipalatinsk, I stand with him in calling for

[[Page E1053]]

a nuclear weapons free world. Of all nations, Kazakhstan has the most 
legitimate voice, as no other nation has been courageous enough to 
disarm. Frankly speaking, when it comes to strengthening the global 
partnership for a nuclear weapons free world, President Nazarbayev has 
set the standard for other nations to follow.
  As Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution, recently 
noted, ``the goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weaponry is written 
into the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which the U.S. Senate 
ratified nearly 40 years ago.'' And yet what have the members of the 
nuclear club done to disarm? In many ways, the five permanent members 
of the UN Security Council, which includes the United States, the 
United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People's Republic of China are 
the worst examples of how the world should deal with nuclear 
challenges, but I remain hopeful that the U.S., under the leadership of 
President Obama, will form a strong alliance with Kazakhstan in moving 
the world forward on this issue.
  Kazakhstan has also made great strides towards democracy, earning the 
support of 56 member nations to head the OSCE in 2010. Today, 
Kazakhstan has become the most stable and prosperous nation in Central 
Asia, and is the first country in the Commonwealth of Independent 
States to be granted market economy status by the United States. With 
more than 130 ethnic groups and 40 faiths living in peaceful 
coexistence, Kazakhstan is also a model for religious tolerance.
  By its actions, Kazakhstan has proven itself to be a key ally of the 
United States and, as such, I welcome Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin's 
visit to Washington, D.C.

                          ____________________