Harald Müller recounts his lifelong interest in nuclear issues, stemming from the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his extensive career at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). He emphasizes the dual role of nuclear weapons as both a deterrent, especially against threats like Russia's current aggression, and a danger due to the possibility of catastrophic misuse. Müller suggests a multi-faceted approach to nuclear disarmament, advocating for academic input, practical policy steps, and international cooperation, while recognizing that genuine disarmament requires alignment among global powers, including autocratic states. Despite recent geopolitical setbacks, he remains cautiously hopeful for future nuclear arms control, though he stresses the importance of conventional deterrents in a potential nuclear-free world.

This document summary was generated by an artificial intelligence language model and was reviewed by a Wilson Center staff member.

Schmidbauer and Rouhani review the state of bilateral relations. They discuss Iran's arms control policy and its interest in the aquisitation of nuclear technology for peaceful uses, as Rouhani argues. Rouhani reiterates Iran's readiness for whatever kind of international nuclear inspections. Iran's interest was still the finalization of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Mitterrand gives a report on his recent meeting with Yeltsin emphasizing his support for the idea to have a multilateral Western summit meeting on financial aid for Russia prior to the 1993 Tokyo World Economic Summit as a way to show more support for Yeltsin. Kohl and Mitterrand discuss British and Japanese objections to this idea.

Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in the Near and Middle East and the changed in Syria's position toward Israel after the demise of the Soviet Union. Rabin expresses concern about the continued arms race in the region and Syria's purchases of Scud missiles from Russia and Slovakia. He also reiterates Iraq's continued capability to go nuclear within 5 to 6 years despite international arms control inspections. Last but not least, Kohl and Rabin discuss the situation in Iran and Kohl's contacts with President Rafsandjani.

Bush, Kohl, and others discuss relations with France and France's views of NATO, talks between the US and the USSR over the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), safeguarding the Brazilian rainforest, the Uruguay Round of the GATT, support for economic reforms in the Soviet Union, and US-German relations.

Chairperson of the subcommittee for "Disarmament, Arms Control, and Nonproliferation" of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag.

Deputy head of the nuclear non-proliferation section of the economic department in the German Federal Foreign Office.

The document describes the state of the SNF negotiations that Italy and West Germany started pushing for in 1989.

The document briefly describes the US and Soviet views on the question of SRINF reductions, and discusses the German concerns about the process.