[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[October 1, 1992]
[Pages 1733-1734]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Senate Ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
October 1, 1992

    I am pleased that the Senate today gave its consent to the 
ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, START. The START 
negotiations began 10 years ago. These long years of negotiations 
culminated in an historic agreement, first with the Soviet Union and 
then with Russia, Ukraine, Byelarus, and Kazakhstan; true strategic arms 
reductions, not just limitations or controls.
    START reduces United States and former Soviet strategic weapons by 
about 40 percent and makes even deeper cuts in the weapons of greatest 
concern, fast-flying ballistic missiles.
    It also helps to ensure that the demise of the Soviet Union does not 
stimulate nuclear proliferation. In START, Ukraine, Byelarus, and 
Kazakhstan have all agreed to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 
as non-nuclear-weapon states and to guarantee the elimination of 
strategic nuclear forces from their territory.
    Finally, this historic agreement has paved the way for further path-
breaking steps and far-reaching reductions. In large part because of 
START's verification provisions, I was able in my September 1991 and 
January 1992 initiatives to make major unilateral nuclear reductions and 
successfully challenge Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin to do the same. 
Of even greater significance, the START framework permitted President 
Yeltsin and me to reach agreement at our summit meeting last June, after 
just 5 months of negotiation, on extraordinary fur-

[[Page 1734]]

ther reductions in strategic nuclear weapons. All the agreements reached 
over the past year, beginning with START, will reduce our strategic 
nuclear forces by about 75 percent from their 1990 level. As such, START 
and follow-on understandings have done much to reverse the hands on the 
nuclear doomsday clock.
    With the Senate's action this morning, the United States will be 
prepared to ratify the START Treaty once the other four parties have 
acted. I would note with satisfaction that the Government of Kazakhstan 
has already approved START, and I urge the remaining parties, Russia, 
Byelarus, and Ukraine, to approve this historic treaty promptly, so its 
mandated reductions can begin without delay.