Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms White House Statement on a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report.

The principal findings of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence speak for themselves. They confirm that the SALT II treaty can be monitored to a degree that justifies the administration's conclusion that the treaty is adequately verifiable.

The committee expressly finds that the SALT II treaty enhances the ability of the United States to monitor those components of Soviet strategic weapons forces which are subject to the limitations of the treaty. Additionally, the committee has found that in the absence of the SALT II treaty, the Soviets would be free to take more sweeping concealment and deception measures, which could make monitoring of Soviet strategic forces even more difficult.

Thus, we believe the Senate can proceed to vote on the SALT II treaty with the full confidence that the issue of verification has been satisfactorily resolved.

We welcome this Intelligence Committee report and look forward to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony of Chairman Bayh and Senator Goldwater next week. In addition, the President intends to meet personally with both Senators Bayh and Goldwater to discuss the report in more detail.