III

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. RES. 134

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should give high

priority to working with partners in the Americas to address shared

foreign policy and security problems in the Western Hemisphere.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 9, 1997

Mr. GRAHAM (for himself and Mr. LUGAR) submitted the following resolution;

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States

should give high priority to working with partners in

the Americas to address shared foreign policy and security problems in the Western Hemisphere.

Whereas the worldwide democratic revolution has spread

throughout the Western Hemisphere to include democratically elected governments in all countries but Cuba;

Whereas market economic principles have been adopted by

most countries in the Western Hemisphere, resulting in

remarkable economic growth and substantial increases in

international trade and investment;

Whereas the end of the Cold War has opened up opportunities to address country-specific, regional, and Hemisphere-wide concerns relating to economic development,
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•SRES 134 IS

political reform, security problems, and other social and

environmental issues in the Americas;

Whereas there are numerous foreign policy and security concerns in the Americas, including the defense of democracy and free markets, illicit narcotics trafficking, terrorism, organized criminal activities, immigration flows,

arms control and nonproliferation, environment degradation, and other regional and Hemisphere-wide issues that

can best be addressed by collaborative, multilateral

means;

Whereas the President of the United States announced on

August 1, 1997, a revision of the unilateral policy prohibiting the sale or transfer of advanced weapons systems to

countries of South America, Central America, and the

Caribbean, and the restoration of United States military

sales policy based on a case-by-case basis comparable to

other regions of the world;

Whereas the defense ministers of the Hemisphere meet on a

regular basis, as evidenced by the Defense Ministerial of

the Americas held in 1995 and 1996, to address problems of mutual security and to deepen the security dialogue in the Western Hemisphere; and

Whereas it is in the national security interest of the United

States to promote security and stability with our Hemispheric neighbors by engaging with them as equal partners to address security-related matters of mutual concern: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that—

2 (1) the United States should give high priority

3 to working with United States partners in the Amer-
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1 icas to address shared foreign policy and security

2 problems in the Western Hemisphere;

3 (2) the United States should encourage efforts

4 to increase the transparency of defense planning,

5 military acquisitions, military exercises, and military

6 deployments as well as other mutual-confidence and

7 security-building measures in the Hemisphere in

8 order to strengthen the environment of trust, con9 fidence, and mutual restraint;

10 (3) the United States should immediately begin

11 discussions with United States partners in the

12 Hemisphere on steps that could lead to a voluntary

13 multilateral restraint regime on the acquisition of

14 advanced weapons systems in the Hemisphere;

15 (4) the United States, in consultation with

16 other countries in the Americas, should explore

17 areas for enhancing cooperation and collaboration,

18 including the strengthening of existing inter-Amer19 ican organizations and arrangements, in order to ad20 dress shared problems relating to subregional and

21 Hemisphere-wide foreign policy and security-related

22 issues;

23 (5) the United States should—

24 (A) encourage countries in the Hemisphere

25 to implement the Santiago Declaration on Con-
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1 fidence and Security-Building Measures

2 (CSBM) resolution adopted by the Organization

3 of American States (OAS) on November 10,

4 1995; and

5 (B) take steps to bring about the imple6 mentation of the resolution on Conventional

7 Arms Transparency and Confidence Building in

8 the Americas relating to conventional arms ac9 quisitions adopted by the OAS on June 5,

10 1997;

11 (6) the United States should increase the num12 ber of civilian and military personnel in foreign pol13 icy and defense-related training, education, and ex14 change programs from and to eligible countries in

15 the Western Hemisphere and encourage similar pro16 grams between countries in the region;

17 (7) the United States should conduct an in18 depth study of the roles, requirements, missions, and

19 priorities of the United States Armed Forces in the

20 Western Hemisphere in the post-Cold War environ21 ment, including recommendations for additional

22 steps that should be taken to improve Hemispheric

23 security and areas of possible cooperation with the

24 armed forces of other countries in the region;
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1 (8) the study should be completed within 12

2 months of the date of adoption of this resolution,

3 and the appropriate committees of Congress should

4 be notified of the findings of the study upon its com5 pletion; and

6 (9) the President should submit a report to

7 Congress every 90 days on progress towards achiev8 ing the policy goals stated in this resolution.

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