01 April 2009
Obama, Russia’s Medvedev Announce New Arms Control Plan
First official meeting sets broad agenda for U.S.-Russian relations
Washington — President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have announced plans for deep, new cuts in their arsenals of nuclear weapons as the first step toward charting a new course in U.S.-Russian relations.
“Over the last several years the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift,” Obama said in a joint appearance with Medvedev in London April 1. “What we're seeing today is the beginning of new progress in the U.S.-Russian relations.”
In a statement released after their first official meeting, the two leaders announced talks aimed at a follow-on accord to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which is set to expire December 5, 2009. If successful, the new talks could further shrink U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,500 warheads apiece or lower, down from current levels of about 2,200, say arms control experts, as well as make comparable reductions in delivery vehicles, such as ballistic missiles and submarines. (See “Clinton Hails Renewal of U.S.-Russian Arms Control Talks.”)
Since coming into force, START significantly decreased nuclear weapons by establishing a complex monitoring system limiting both sides to a maximum of 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads. That number was cut further to approximately 2,200 nuclear warheads by 2012 under the less restrictive Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty signed in 2002. U.S. and Russian critics long have called for a return to the original, legally binding START framework.
As owners of more than 95 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, Obama said, the United States and Russia will lead by example, taking concrete steps toward the long-term diplomatic goal of disarmament while sending a powerful message to countries such as Iran, whose controversial nuclear program is currently subject to three rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions supported by the White House and the Kremlin.
Obama accepted Medvedev’s invitation to visit Moscow in July, when the two leaders will assess negotiators’ progress in working out the new arms control pact.
“As much as the constant cloud, the threat of nuclear warfare, has receded since the Cold War … the presence of these deadly weapons, their proliferation, the possibility of them finding their way into the hands of terrorists, continues to be the gravest threat to humanity,” Obama said in a joint press briefing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown April 1. “What better project to start off than seeing if we can make progress on that front?”
BEYOND RESET: TURNING WARM WORDS INTO ACTUAL ACHIEVEMENTS
The meeting between Obama and Medvedev on the sidelines of the G20 summit represented the culmination of weeks of intensive diplomacy by the administration to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russian relations. The two leaders issued a joint statement that set out a new U.S.-Russian agenda, aimed at moving beyond reset and toward turning “warm words into actual achievements.”
In addition to arms control and nuclear nonproliferation, Obama and Medvedev identified several other top priorities, including efforts to address the global financial crisis, stabilize South Asia and support progress toward Middle East peace. Future meetings will include discussion of transnational threats such as terrorism, organized crime, corruption and drug trafficking, as well as ways to strengthen U.S.-Russian economic ties and cultural exchanges.
Since taking office in January, Obama has exchanged letters and several phone calls with Medvedev on ways to improve ties, which have been chilled in recent years by differences over Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, NATO enlargement and the future of European security, and a proposed European-based ballistic missile defense system.
In February, Vice President Biden met with Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany. In March, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva to set the stage for the Obama-Medvedev talks. Observers note that both Obama and Medvedev are lawyers by education, and represent a new, post-Cold War generation of leaders who may promise a genuine new start in U.S.-Russian relations. (See “Analysis: America and Russia “Press the Reset Button” .”)
After the meeting, senior administration officials said that the meeting was a positive step toward an ambitious new relationship rooted in confronting shared challenges and honest conversation on differences, rather than the “drive-by summits” and that too often have characterized U.S.-Russian relations in past years. “This is not flowery language; this is actual statements about real things,” said one official on background.
“In order for us to have a very strong and solid relationship, we need to be honest and truthful with one another,” said a senior administration official. “Today was an important milestone, but both presidents let it be known we've got a lot of work to do.”
On the proposed Europe-based missile defense system, the two sides made modest progress narrowing differences, say officials, pledging continued discussion on possible partnership, but continued disagreement on system deployment. The system’s future remains under review by the new administration, which has questioned the capabilities and cost of the system, but has stated that increased Russian support for addressing Iran’s ballistic missile threat to the region would reduce the need for missile defense.
Obama also underlined U.S. support for Georgia, said the officials, taking issue with Russia’s decision to recognize Moscow-backed breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states and questioning Medvedev’s assertion of a Russian “sphere of privileged influence” in neighboring countries. “We don't recognize spheres of influence as a useful concept in the 21st century,” the officials said.
Senior leaders on both sides sought advice from former officials on repairing relations. Obama and Biden held a private meeting with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, while Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in March met with a delegation of American “wise men” led by former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Shultz along with former Senator Sam Nunn and former Defense Secretary William Perry. Another former secretary of state, James Baker, also traveled to Moscow in recent weeks.
“There are very real differences between the United States and Russia, and I have no interest in papering those over. But there are also a broad set of common interests that we can pursue,” Obama said in the press conference with Brown. “On a whole range of issues, from Afghanistan to Iran to the topics that will be consuming most of our time here at the G20, I think there's great potential for concerted action.”
A transcript of remarks by Obama and Medvedev, a transcript of the Obama-Brown press availability and the full text of the Obama-Medvedev arms control statement are available on America.gov.
