18 December 2008

Russia, U.S. Negotiators Meet on START Treaty, Missile Defense

No breakthroughs, but useful talks, United States says

Acting Under Secretary John Rood at a press briefing

By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Russian and U.S. negotiators held productive talks on a host of strategic security issues including a replacement for the 1991 START I treaty and a proposed European-based U.S. missile defense system, a senior American official says. No new accords were expected from the preliminary talks.

A U.S. negotiating team led by Acting Under Secretary of State John Rood met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his staff in Moscow December 15.

“We spent most of our time on two topics: the follow-on treaty to the START treaty and missile defense,” Rood said at a Washington briefing December 17. “Obviously, we didn't reach agreement on a treaty or something of that nature, and I would say, in general, there was no breakthrough on any particular topic, but nonetheless a useful discussion.”

START I — the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — is a bilateral agreement between the United States and the former Soviet Union, signed July 31, 1991, that limits both to no more than 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads, and limits the number of delivery vehicles — such as bombers and land-based and submarine-based missiles — to 1,600 each. The current treaty is set to expire December 5, 2009.

Rood said the meeting in Moscow was the first since the United States provided a draft of the new treaty to the Russians. “I think it's important for us to continue to use the remaining time in this administration to try to prepare the ground for the next administration to conclude an agreement before the START treaty expires in a year,” he said.

The essential difference between the United States and Russia rests on two pivotal points. “For us in the United States, we would like a treaty which sets limits on strategic nuclear weapons. Our colleagues in Russia would like a treaty with a broader scope than that, and they would like it to encompass conventional forces as well, conventional strategic forces,” Rood said.

“We expect the new [U.S.] administration to maintain constructive cooperation with us so that the START treaty can be preserved and strengthened, rather than weakened, after December 2009,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after attending a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York December 17.

Rood said he consulted with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team before heading to Moscow, and he will brief the team again on the substance of the Moscow talks.

MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD

In addition to talks on a new START treaty, the Russian and U.S. negotiators also discussed a plan by the United States to place 10 interceptor missiles at a base in Poland and locate an advanced radar station in the Czech Republic to protect the United States and allies from "rogue nations" that may acquire long-range missiles with nuclear warheads, Rood said.

“I think it's fair to say the Russians still have significant concerns about the U.S. plans to place missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic,” he said. The Russians have been invited to have officials working at both sites to create openness and confidence that the system is in no way directed at Russia, he said.

“The reason I think that's important is that a substantial Russian concern is not the initial sites, but what might they grow to become,” Rood said.

Rood said he stopped in Warsaw after the Moscow meeting to brief Polish officials on the Russian negotiations because they were scheduled to meet with Russian officials on security issues.