[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 20 (Monday, May 19, 1997)]
[Page 721]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Strengthening International Nuclear Safeguards on 
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

May 16, 1997

    On May 15, the international community took a major step toward 
significantly reducing the danger that any nation can secretly acquire a 
nuclear arsenal. Last September, in my speech at the United Nations, I 
called on the international community to strengthen the Nuclear 
Nonproliferation Treaty and improve our ability to identify and isolate 
those states that seek to violate its rules. In the most dramatic 
strengthening of nuclear inspections in the last quarter-century, the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its member states have 
agreed in Vienna to develop strong new tools to assist in tracking the 
use and location of nuclear materials around the world.
    During the last 4 years, we have made significant progress in 
curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ending the dangerous 
legacy of cold war weapons stockpiles. But as the clandestine efforts of 
nations such as Iraq to acquire nuclear weapons have made clear, we must 
reinforce our ability to find and stop secret nuclear weapons programs. 
Only in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war were we able to discover 
the full scope of Iraq's activities and intentions.
    The strengthened safeguards system adopted by the IAEA will give 
international nuclear inspectors greater information and access to 
nuclear and related facilities worldwide. By accepting a new legally 
binding protocol, states will assume new safeguards obligations that 
will make all their nuclear activities more transparent--including by 
allowing inspections at all suspicious sites, not just at declared 
sites.
    I urge all nations to adopt as soon as possible appropriate 
protocols to their own safeguard agreements or to make other legally 
binding arrangements that will put new system of safeguards in place. 
And I call on all nations that have not already signed the Nuclear 
Nonproliferation Treaty to do so without delay.
    Reducing the threat of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction 
is one of our highest obligations. Since I took office, we have made the 
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty permanent, dramatically cut existing 
nuclear arsenals under the START treaties, and ratified the Chemical 
Weapons Convention that will outlaw poison gas forever. I look forward 
to working with the Senate as we seek ratification of the Comprehensive 
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and as we seek congressional approval of this 
protocol and other arms control measures. Together, we must continue our 
efforts to provide the American people with real and lasting security.