Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08TALLINN149
2008-04-25 13:12:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Tallinn
Cable title:  

ESTONIA PROVIDES DRAFT GLOBAL INITIATIVE JOINT

Tags:  PGOV PREL KNP RU EN 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTL #0149/01 1161312
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 251312Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TALLINN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0603
INFO RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 2598
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

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