LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL OCTOBER 15, 1979. Hon. FRANK CHURCH, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Pursuant to the authorization of the Committee on Foreign Relations, we visited the Soviet Union at the end of August 1979, in a delegation with four of our Senate colleagues, to discuss the SALT II Treaty and other defense and arms control issues with members of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet and other senior Sovietpolicy-makers. Our conversations in Moscow were substantive and informative. In as much as they related to the Treaty now before the Committee for its consideration, we have prepared the following report of our activities and talks for the information of the Committee and the Senate, concentrating on those exchanges in Moscow which dealt most directly with the provisions of the SALT II Treaty and the prospects for future arms control negotiations. Sincerely, (III) JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr. Appendix A-Texts of the Delegation's prepared statements: Statement of Senator Biden- Statement of Senator Lugar- Statement of Senator Pryor Statement of Senator Levin. Statement of Senator Boren-. Statement of Senator Bradley- Appendix B-Excerpt from the letter the Delegation presented to Acting (V) SALT DISCUSSIONS IN THE SOVIET UNION INTRODUCTION At the invitation of the Supreme Soviet, the U.S.S.R. parliament, a Delegation of six Senators visited the Soviet Union in late August 1979, to discuss Senate consideration of the SALT II Treaty and related arms control and defense expenditure issues. Headed by Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the Delegation included Senators Richard G. Lugar, David L. Boren, Bill Bradley, Carl Levin, and David H. Pryor. Its members left Washington on August 23, and returned on September 1, spending 6 of their 10 days abroad in the U.S.S.R., with talks in Brussels, Belgium and London, England preceding and following their stay in the Soviet Union. This report is devoted entirely to the discussions on SALT the Senators held in Moscow August 27-29 with Premier Alexei Kosygin and officials of the Communist Party Central Committee, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Defense and other Soviet institutions. After an early morning visit August 24 to a Pershing Ia missile site in Germany, the Senators spent the better part of a day in Brussels discussing arms control and defense matters with General Bernard Rogers, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and a number of European military representatives to NATO. The purpose of those conversations was to ascertain the views of NATO military planners on the impact of the SALT II Treaty on European security. These talks enabled the Senators to determine that the views of these leading NATO military officials on SALT are the positions taken by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. In London the Delegation reviewed similar issues with the British Foreign Minister, Lord Carrington, and with the senior staff of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Although both the Brussels and London visits contributed significantly to the Delegation's understanding of European attitudes toward SALT, it was felt that this report should focus as the trip did-on the exchanges in the Soviet Union. The central purpose of those exchanges was to inform Soviet policymakers of the actual present and likely future course of Senate action concerning ratification of the SALT II Treaty documents. In the course of the discussions, however, spokesmen on the Soviet side commented responsively enough to the Senators' presentations to allow the to various U.S. policy decisions on arms control and defense matters. This report presents those conclusions and the record on which they are based. |