24 April 2009
U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Reduction Talks Begin
Washington — The first round of “very productive” negotiations to replace a 1991 nuclear arms reduction treaty have begun in Rome between senior U.S. and Russian diplomats.
“We expect on the basis of this very productive meeting today that we will have a good report for them in July,” Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said at a brief April 24 joint press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.
The new arms control negotiations are aimed at developing a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START-1, before it expires December 5, 2009. President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced in a joint statement April 1 in London that they wanted a report ready for them to review when they meet in Moscow in July.
“We are sure that this new treaty will help improve relations between the United States and the Russian Federation,” Anatoly Antonov, chief of security and disarmament issues at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at the news conference. “I hope we are capable to prepare a new draft by the end of the year, or at least do our utmost.”
The new treaty is seen as a first step toward a nuclear-free agenda proposed by Obama and Medvedev when they met for bilateral talks at the G20 Financial Summit in London.
START-1 is an agreement between the United States and the former Soviet Union, signed July 31, 1991, that limits both nations to no more than 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads and limits the number of delivery vehicles — such as bombers and missiles — to 1,600 each. The treaty is set to expire December 5, 2009.
The United States has 2,200 strategic nuclear warheads that can be delivered by ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines at sea, and long-range Air Force bombers, a group known as the nuclear triad. Russia has approximately 2,800 strategic nuclear warheads that can be delivered in similar ways. Both sides have indicated a willingness to reduce their nuclear arsenals to 1,500 warheads each.
The United States and Russia possess 95 percent of the strategic nuclear warheads in the world.
“The administration of President Obama is committed to negotiating a legally binding follow-on agreement to START,” Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns said in a February interview, “an agreement that preserves a strong verification of the regime and an agreement that aims at further reduction of our nuclear arsenals beyond the levels of the Moscow Treaty.”
The 2002 Moscow Treaty was designed to reduce each nation’s nuclear arsenal to a range of 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by 2012. It was developed, in part, to allow the United States to go forward with developing an anti-ballistic missile system.
These new negotiations, U.S. officials say, are designed to go beyond the Moscow Treaty to an even greater reduction in warheads, but they also acknowledge that it has been many years since the United States and Russia have negotiated arms control agreements, and these talks will be detailed.
The one-day Rome meeting was held to address procedural issues, and to set an agenda for future talks that will be held in Washington and Moscow in the next two months.
State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said at an April 21 press briefing that what is working for the United States and Russia now is that both sides want to reduce their arsenals and they want to strengthen relations.
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