Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

To the Congress of the United States:

Pursuant to the Arms Control and Disarmament Act as amended (P.L. 87297), I herewith transmit the Annual Report of the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

The year covered by this report has been the most rewarding in the twelve-year history of the agency. Agreements reached with the Soviet Union in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks testify to the determination of this Administration to move away from the dangers and burdens of unrestrained arms .competition and toward a stable and constructive international relationship.

The negotiations have resulted not in concessions by the two parties, one to the other, but in mutual arrangements to insure mutual security. For the first time, the United States and the Soviet Union have taken substantial steps in concert to reduce the threat of nuclear war. The current round of SALT negotiations will concentrate on achieving a definitive treaty on the limitation of offensive weapons systems.

The past year has also seen continued progress in other areas of arms control.

Four years after the initial NATO proposal, positive planning has begun for a conference on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions in Central Europe. The Convention banning biological weapons and calling for the destruction of existing stockpiles was opened for signature on April 10, 1972. At the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament in Geneva, the problems associated with control of chemical warfare through international law were subjected to patient and careful examination. The number of nations adhering to the Nonproliferation Treaty has now reached 76 and successful negotiations on safeguard arrangements have paved the way for ratification by key European countries.

Much has been accomplished, but much remains to be done. With the beginning of my second term in office, I rededicate my Administration to the goal of bringing the instruments of warfare under effective and verifiable control.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House,

April 9, 1973.