[ti:Report Urges US, Russian Cooperation on Nuclear Arms Control] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.12]The United States and Russia urgently need to restart cooperation [00:05.73]to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, a new report says. [00:12.04]The International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS, [00:18.67]based in London released the report. [00:23.76]It is called "Once and Future Partners: [00:28.20]The United States, Russia and Nuclear Non-Proliferation." [00:35.20]The study uses formerly secret documents to show incidents [00:41.20]in which the U.S. and Western countries cooperated with Russia [00:47.44]to limit the spread of nuclear weapons in the past. [00:53.76]One important example of cooperation during the period [00:58.86]known as the Cold War took place in August of 1977. [01:06.57]Soviet spy satellites showed preparations for a nuclear weapons test [01:14.24]at a military base in South Africa. [01:18.80]At the time, South Africa was ruled [01:22.40]by a system of racial separation known as apartheid. [01:29.68]The Soviets consulted with the U.S. before publicly announcing their findings. [01:38.08]Nicholas Redman is with the IISS. [01:43.44]He spoke about relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union. [01:50.36]He said the incident shows that, even during the tense period of the Cold War, [01:57.52]the two sides could work together. [02:01.20]Redman said, "The Soviets took the risk [02:06.48]of sharing this intelligence with the United States." [02:12.68]South Africa denied it planned to carry out a nuclear weapons test. [02:19.80]However, U.S. intelligence soon confirmed the presence of the test site. [02:28.56]It helped pressure South Africa to cancel its plans. [02:35.92]Another example was the cooperation between U.S. President Jimmy Carter [02:42.80]and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. [02:47.64]Redman says that personal relationshipa were important, [02:53.40]but other supports needed to be in place [02:57.12]to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. [03:02.60]"The fact that there were arms control specialists [03:07.00]and scientific specialists in both governments, [03:11.60]the fact that they met regularly... [03:14.60]this was actually vital in building the entire regime," he said. [03:20.98]The development of a plan for limiting the spread of nuclear weapons [03:28.12]took about 10 years of talks in Geneva during the 1960s. [03:36.76]The result was the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). [03:43.56]It remains important to nuclear arms control. [03:49.04]But the NPT is being questioned more than at any time in its past. [03:56.64]Redman noted: "So there's a need for an investment [04:01.52]to rebuild these habits of cooperation [04:05.20]because the threats haven't actually gone away. [04:10.04]There are still a lot of nuclear weapons that aren't as secure [04:15.52]as we would like them to be. [04:18.64]There are even more nuclear materials..." [04:24.76]Some experts are concerned that a new nuclear arms race is developing. [04:31.72]They point to Russia developing so called tactical atomic weapons [04:38.68]and American efforts to modernize nuclear weapons. [04:45.08]The United Nations has tried to support nuclear arms control [04:50.64]with the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. [04:57.60]However, no nuclear powers have been willing to sign the treaty. [05:04.72]Redman said, "Unless the United States and Russia cooperate, [05:10.44]the problem is they could very quickly lose the initiative [05:15.76]they have held up till now." [05:20.88]I'm Mario Ritter. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM