Cannon's summer trip: Kazakhstan

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, spoke to Kazakhstan officials and other central Asia leaders last week on nuclear nonproliferation during a congressional trip to Kazakhstan.

Cannon was spending the last week of the August recess in Kazakhstan meeting with President Nursultan Nazarbayev. He also planned to visit an LDS church in Almaty.

Cannon spoke at a conference focusing on nonproliferation, where he talked about Utah's downwinders and the long-term effects of the Cold War. He also praised Nazarbayev's leadership as he brought the country out from under rule by the former Soviet Union.

Nazarbayev and Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat who represents American Samoa in Congress, invited Cannon to go on the trip. Faleomavaega is chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment.

In his speech on nonproliferation, Cannon said "it is truly an ironic twist of linguistics that decisions to test nuclear weapons and decisions to disarm both have fallout."

He described what happened to Utah's downwinders from nuclear testing in the United States, as radioactive material moved downwind from above-ground and underground tests.

"The casualties of the Cold War were not relegated to the political prisons of Eastern Europe or the brutal dictatorships that were the natural byproduct of a morally bankrupt political ideology," Cannon said, according to his prepared remarks. "The Cold War also claimed lives in small towns and homes throughout Nevada, Utah and the Western United States. In addition, detonations in the Marshall Islands cost America more than money. The resulting fallout destroyed lives and the genetic effects can still be felt to this day — thankfully, less than any hostile explosion in a city, but it delivers the message of why we are here."

But in a different type of "fallout," Cannon said Kazakhstan's and other countries' decisions to disarm, and the prosperity that followed, shows that such a "responsible decision should be a clarion call to those who would delude themselves into thinking that nuclear weapons represent a back door to legitimacy."

"Respect cannot be learned, purchased or acquired — it can only be earned," Cannon said. "Respect cannot be mined, enriched or tested — it can only be deserved. And legitimacy, freedom and prosperity for your people can only be achieved by building up, not by tearing down."

But Cannon pointed to India and Pakistan, which have done nuclear testing, and North Korea's recent pledge to disarm.

"Much as Rome was not built in a day, so too international accord and cooperation cannot be an overnight achievement," Cannon said.

The trip cost an estimated $12,000, paid for by Congress as part of official travel.

---

E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com