Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/213

 PUBLIC LAW 98-525—OCT. 19, 1984

98 STAT. 2585

(2) urges the President to pursue negotiations on these measures with the Government of the Soviet Union and to add to these negotiations the establishment of nuclear risk reduction centers in both nations to be operated under the direction of the appropriate diplomatic and defense authorities. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING A REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CERTAIN VERIFICATION PROGRAMS RELATING TO BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS

SEC. 1109. (a) The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The Iran-Iraq war has recently demonstrated a marked increase in the proliferation of technology on the production of chemical weapons and an increase in the willingness of nations to use such weapons in armed conflict. (2) The President's Report to Congress on Soviet Arms Control Noncompliance concluded that the Soviet Union has refused to respond adequately to United States concerns about the transfer or use by the Soviet Union of lethal chemical warfare agents in Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan and United States concerns about adherence by the Soviet Union to the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. (3) Experts at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and at the First World Congress on New Compounds in Biological and Chemical Warfare held at Ghent, Belgium, emphasized that better verification of the use of chemical weapons and of the development of biological and toxin weapons was essential to strengthen the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the Geneva Protocol of 1925. (4) The 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention is scheduled for review in 1985. (5) The United States is anxious to promote and strengthen adherence to the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the 1972 Biological and Chemical Weapons Convention and is vigorously pursuing a comprehensive, verifiable, international agreement to ban chemical weapons. (6) Any comprehensive agreement intended to ban the production, storage, and transfer of chemical weapons must provide for effective measures of verification and enforcement and in order for the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to be effective, compliance with the terms of the convention must be verifiable; and (7) The Congress must be well informed regarding existing and planned programs for verifying compliance with the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and with a chemical weapons ban agreement. (b) It is the sense of Congress that the President should submit to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate and to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives a comprehensive report identifying and evaluating— (1) existing and planned programs to support verification requirements necessary to determine compliance with the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and a chemical weapons ban; and

Iran-Iraq war.

President of U.S.

26 UST 583. 26 UST 571.

�