in the interests of the international community. The United States has to gradually transition from programs fostering economic aid and assistance in science and technology to joint programs based on partnership and collaboration to the timely identification and analysis of existing obstacles, difficulties, and disagreements and finding ways to resolve them.

The global partnership must encompass not only nuclear-powered submarine disposition, nuclear material disposal, and elimination of nuclear weapons but also the development of a new nonproliferation regime and finding solutions to the related key scientific and technological challenges that lie ahead.

A mechanism needs to be set up to address the most critical nonproliferation issues, as well as existing disagreements. Disagreements between the United States and Russia on a number of issues must not undermine the foundations of our cooperation since we agree on the most important thing, which is that U.S.-Russian collaboration on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation is essential for the strengthening of strategic stability and security and is in the best interest of both countries and the entire global community as a whole.

Another important aspect is addressing, through such fora as U.S.-Russian joint working groups at both the governmental and the nongovernmental levels, the issues of security and nonproliferation and providing relevant recommendations to policy makers.