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Deputy Secretary Talbott Address to the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, Bodo, Norway, March 5, 1999

As prepared for delivery

An American Perspective on Regional Integration

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to express my appreciation to you personally, and, through you, to the people of Norway and especially to the people of Bodo for making your guests feel so welcome. For an American making his first visit here -- and certainly for one who is both a student and a child of the Cold War -- there is a special fascination in coming here to this lovely town.

Nearly 40 years ago, on a bright, spring day in 1960, Bodo airfield, where most of us landed in the last 24 hours, was the intended destination of an American pilot named Francis Gary Powers, who had taken off the day before from a base in Peshawar, Pakistan. Mr. Powers, of course, never made it to Bodo. He and his U-2 came to earth near Svedlovsk, thus triggering one of the more spectacular and dangerous confrontations of that bygone era.

Today, Bodo itself is a testament to how much the world -- and this region -- have changed. As all of us can see, Bodo is teeming with shipping, fishing, commerce, and other activities that serve to bring together the people and the interests of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and all the states represented here. As a vigorous nexus of regional interaction and integration, Bodo is an ideal venue for this meeting.

I was fortunate enough to represent the United States at last year's gathering of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council in Lulea, and I welcome the chance yet again to affirm, on a continuing basis, my country's support for the Council's work. We do so as part of our own Northern European Initiative, or NEI. I'm joined here by my friend and colleague Ron Asmus, well-known to many of you as the moving force behind the NEI.

Along with the U.S.'s involvement in the Council of Baltic Sea States, our observer status in this body is part of a larger commitment to helping build an inclusive Euro-Arctic community that reaches from Barents to the Adriatic -- and from the North Sea to the Pacific. In this region, as in others, the guiding principle of our contribution is simple: We will offer help in specific areas where we can truly provide added value.

One such area is nuclear waste management and safety. Last year in Lulea, I announced that the U.S. Government would contribute $500,000 toward the construction of a prototype containment cask in Murmansk for the interim storage of damaged fuel from nuclear-powered vessels. Since then, Norway, Sweden, and Finland; the United Kingdom; as well as the European Commission and the Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation, have all contributed generously to this effort. I am pleased to announce today that the U.S. Government will be contributing an additional $500,000 to this important project.

Before finishing our work here, we will all be signing a landmark document on reactor safety and the sound management of nuclear waste. Later this month, the U.S., Norway, and Russia will begin work on an important trilateral agreement to provide the legal protections enabling our countries to intensify our cooperation in nuclear waste management. We've set ourselves the target of concluding that agreement before the end of this year.

Meanwhile, our joint project with Russia and Norway on the Murmansk liquid waste treatment facility is nearing completion -- we hope by August -- so that Russia will then be able to adhere to the London Dumping Convention protocol's prohibition against the disposal of nuclear material at sea. Finally, we have recently reached agreement with Norway and Russia on a new project under the auspices of the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation program to build a mobile liquid waste treatment facility to help manage those liquid wastes that cannot be safely transported.

These and other efforts address one of the most dangerous legacies of the Cold War -- one that has special salience for the all the citizens of this region. The problem transcends existing national borders, not to mention now-defunct ideological divides. By the same token, the collective search for a solution proves that the governments represented here are rolling up their sleeves and -- in the most literal as well as the most symbolic sense -- burying the worst of the past, thus clearing the way for the best of the future.

The work of governments depends on the dedication of individuals. In that regard, let me say that the United States is fortunate to have public servants such as Alan Hecht of the Environmental Protection Agency and Carol Kessler, Senior Coordinator for Nuclear Reactor Safety at the State Department, working on these programs back in Washington. They are here today in Bodo.

Let me now turn to several other regional activities in which the U.S. has been engaged under the rubric of the Northern European Initiative. Some of them are outside the ambit of the Barents Council, but they are all aimed at supporting the Council's objective of strengthening ties through this region.

Since Lulea, the United States has assumed the chair of the Arctic Council -- another good example of a new mechanism for regional cooperation that has emerged since the end of the Cold War. We are continuing the good work of the previous chair, Canada, in shifting the focus of Arctic activities from issues of military security to what might be called the new agenda of environmental protection and economic development. We have put forward initiatives aimed at ending the use of PCBs, reducing pollution in and around the Arctic Ocean, and promoting sustainable development.

In May, senior officials from eight Arctic Council member states will meet in Anchorage. Mr. Chairman, I would urge that the Barents Council -- perhaps through the good offices of new Finnish chair -- consider submitting a report on the good work you've done here so that the Arctic Council can learn from and build on your experience. We have, in short, a perfect example -- and a perfect opportunity -- for different organizations, with overlapping memberships and missions, to reinforce each other.

One of many areas where we can develop that kind of synergy is in safeguarding public health. At the Anchorage meeting, there will be a chance to hear more about Alaska's proposal on Arctic tele-medicine -- an initiative that puts doctors and patients in touch with each other over the internet. The tele-medicine project is of value to all the populations of the region, but perhaps especially, the Sami and other indigenous peoples.

If health hazards such as tuberculosis and other infectious diseases are a common threat requiring common action, so is organized crime. Under the Northern European Initiative, U.S. law enforcement agencies are participating in the joint effort to combat cross-border car theft, money laundering, and smuggling. It was in this connection that Louis Freeh, the director of the FBI, has made several visits to many of the countries gathered here.

Finally, I would mention another area of common interest: the promotion of opportunities for women throughout this region. Next week in Riga, the U.S. and Finland will co-sponsor an experts conference on these issues. That event, which owes much to the personal concern and initiative of our friend Tarja Halonen, will focus on both the good news and the bad news -- that is, on the rich prospects for women's entrepreneurship, but also on the stubborn and daunting challenges posed by domestic violence and international trafficking in prostitution.

The U.S. Government will also co-sponsor a major regional conference on Women and Democracy in Iceland in October. Thanks to the generosity and leadership of the Icelandic Government, participants from governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations from the Nordic and Baltic countries and from Russia and the United States will have a chance to develop common strategies for overcoming barriers to women's participation in the economy and civil society. Our First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is delighted to accept an invitation to participate.

I need hardly add that this project has the full backing of my boss, the Secretary of State. But so do all the projects we are discussing today. Indeed, Mr. Chairman, in addition to conveying her greetings to you and to all her colleagues assembled here, Secretary Albright has asked me to underscore her admiration for the work of this organization. She sees the Barents Euro-Arctic Council as a key building block in a larger cause to which she has devoted much of her own energy and commitment: the transformation of Europe as a whole from division to integration, from confrontation to cooperation -- a transformation that the town of Bodo itself so vividly dramatizes and a transformation that this Council has done so much to advance.

[End of Document]

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