ESTONIA PROVIDES DRAFT GLOBAL INITIATIVE JOINT

UNCLAS TALLINN 000149 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE FOR EUR/NB KATHERINE GARRY FOR INS/WMDT SARAH PRESCOTT AND TIM KATSAPIS MOSCOW FOR COLIN CLEARY AND MIKE DUNKLEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KNP RU EN SUBJECT: ESTONIA PROVIDES DRAFT GLOBAL INITIATIVE JOINT EDITORIAL FOR REVIEW REF: TALLINN 134 ¶1. (U) Action request - please see paragraph (3). ¶2. (SBU) On April 25, Anneli Poolakese, Counter Terrorism Desk Officer at the Estonian MFA, provided Poloff the MFA's draft text for the proposed Estonia-U.S.-Russia joint editorial on the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GI) (reftel). The text is provided in para 4. ¶3. (SBU) ACTION REQUEST: Embassy requests the Department provide comments on the text that we can convey to the MFA. We note the MFA is not planning to share the draft text with the Government of Russia before it receives comments from the United States. ¶4. (U) Begin draft text: GLOBAL INITIATIVE EDITORIAL: Terrorism is the scourge of our times and the civilized world must fight it on all fronts. Terrorism aims to strike fear into our hearts by making us feel unsafe, by making us fear an attack wherever we are, unless we give in to the terrorists' demands, whatever they may be. Civilization's greatest fear being nuclear weapons in the wrong hands, our greatest challenge in the fight against terrorism is preventing nuclear terrorism, preventing terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons. The overriding safeguard against nuclear terrorism is the international nonproliferation regime, a complex system built by the international community to deal with diverse proliferation threats. With each initiative added, the regime has sought to adapt to new challenges [presented by advances in technology, evolving security dynamics, and other events]. Nevertheless, "proliferators", terrorists among them, have managed to adapt to new conditions and occasionally outfox safeguards and prevention. We must do everything we can to always be at least one step ahead of them. This is a race we cannot afford to lose, lest the world enter a new and dangerous nuclear era. The entire spectrum of nuclear policy, including arms control, deployments, threat reducing assistance, civilian nuclear energy, even medical and industrial uses of radioactive sources needs reshaping to give full recognition to the dangers of nuclear proliferation. To this end, the nonproliferation architecture assembled over the past three decades needs to be reinforced and fortified by new measures. The task is immense. Although the end of the Cold War two decades ago should have made nuclear weapons obsolete, there are still more than 25,000 of them ready for use. But the potential exists to make almost ten times as many, 200,000 weapons - world stockpiles of separated plutonium and highly enriched uranium (HEU),the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons, amount to well over 2,300 tons. Because fissile materials have both military and civilian uses, these materials are much more broadly distributed than nuclear weapons are. But only a small amount of this is under safeguards. Terrorists and their supporters [would-be nuclear states] continue to try to acquire nuclear material on the black market. The break-up of the A.Q. Khan network was critical in stemming the spread of the know-how and equipment needed to produce fissile material and nuclear weapons. Most alarmingly, the likelihood that non-state terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weaponry is increasing. The international community needs to take concrete action. States must put in place effective controls and enforcement so that non-state actors will not acquire deadly technologies [that they would then turn on civilized nations]. Consensus adoption of UNSCR 1540 requiring all UN member states to adopt measures to secure their nuclear assets, to adopt effective export controls, on WMD material, and to criminalize actions by non-state actors to develop WMD in April 2004 signals an important recognition that every nation has a responsibility in this endeavor and must redouble their efforts to ensure that terrorists do not succeed in their deadly quest. When President Bush and President Putin announced the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism on the eve of the G8 Summit 2006, they emphasized the importance of seeking and creating creative opportunities where all federal, state, and local government organizations could work together to combat nuclear terrorism. Interacting closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),the partners endorsed the Statement of Principles, which include a political commitment to expand and accelerate our individual and collective efforts to: -Develop and improve accounting, control and physical protection; -Enhance the security of civilian nuclear facilities; -Research and develop national detection capabilities that are interoperable; -Enhance search, confiscation, and safe control capabilities; -Deny safe haven and financial resources to those facilitating nuclear terrorism; -Ensure adequate civil and criminal legal frameworks to deter nuclear terrorism; -Improve response, investigation, and mitigation capabilities; and -Promote information sharing among participants . We are pleased by the large increase in participation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. We have over 60 partners in the Global Initiative and a confident expectation that we will grow in the near future. The expanded participation demonstrates the strong desire of the international community to combat nuclear terrorism and the readiness to strengthen our capacity to prevent the acquisition of nuclear materials and know-how by terrorists. We would conduct a strong outreach campaign to bring on new partners before the next GI meeting. We would extend our partnership to governments and to the private sector in recognition of their critical role in combating nuclear terrorism with us at the international and national levels. By bringing together the international community around a common goal, improving the ability of states to take concerted action and creating synergies, we will take important strides toward effectively addressing perhaps the greatest threat of the 21st century. To tackle nuclear terrorism, it is crucial to ensure that nuclear materials are not accessible to terrorists, and that nuclear facilities and structures will not become the target of terrorist attacks. These risks should be considered by both large and small countries, whether they are nuclear or non-nuclear. The way forward for the Global Initiative is to pre-empt nuclear terrorism in a deeper, more sustained and creative way. The framework for our partnership - a shared understanding of the threat, the principles we must implement, the political commitments we have made, the scheduled activities - are either established or set in motion. We don't really have a choice - as long as nothing changes, nuclear terrorism will remain an ever-present danger. If GI works then we can hope for a life without fear. END TEXT OF GLOBAL INITIATIVE EDITORIAL PHILLIPS