MULTILATERAL AFFAIRS BUREAU (MA)

This division is responsible for guidance for U.S. delegations to various multilateral arms control conferences and meetings. It provides policy guidance and instructions, chairing the Washington interagency policy formulation for U.S. delegations conducting multilateral discussions or negotiations on issues including:

• outer space arms control;

• transparency in armaments and the U.N. Register of Conventional Arms;

• negative security assurances;

• efforts to begin negotiations for a fissile material cutoff convention; and

• efforts to begin negotiations at the CD on a ban on the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of anti-personnel landmines.

The division provides delegation members and support for the Conference on Disarmament, the UN Disarmament Commission, the UN General Assembly First Committee, other UN-related disarmament fora, and the NATO Disarmament Experts' Group.

It also covers any bilateral activities, international conferences or consultations which relate to nuclear testing and existing constraints on tests, including:

• the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty;

• the 1974 Threshold Test Ban Treaty;

• the 1976 Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty;

• the provisional Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the implementing body for the CTBT.

The European Security Policy Division assists in preparing guidance for ACDA's participation in U.S. delegations at European security negotiations in Vienna and elsewhere. It participates in formulation of U.S. policy for treaty implementation and adaptation through the Joint Consultative Group of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and the Open Skies Consultative Commission. This division participates in the interagency process that supports Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe efforts to increase/maintain stability in Europe, including implementation of Confidence- and Security-Building Measures in the Forum for Security Cooperation and the arms control elements of the peace agreement for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and by organizing and conducting the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation's Annual Implementation Assessment Meeting. The European Security Policy Division provides delegation staffing for these negotiations, and consults and coordinates with allied and other foreign governments on multilateral arms control issues.

The Chemical and Biological Policy Division makes policy recommendations and provides scientific and technical support for chemical and biological arms control. This division directs interagency policy formulation for CBW issues, develops and coordinates guidance, and provides delegation staffing for negotiations and meetings related to these issues, including:

• the Chemical Weapons Convention;

• the Biological Weapons Convention;

• the U.S.-Russian Wyoming Memorandum of Understanding;

• the Bilateral Destruction Agreement;

• the Trilateral Statement on Biological Weapons and other CBW negotiations.