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7/5/2009 [Total Votes: 531, Hits: 517]Print

Russia and USA held talks on 4th June at Geneva to further cut their nuclear arsenals. It implies that both the parties will have to seek new consensus to reduce their arsenal below the levels set in 1991. The START, which limits the US and Russian nuclear arsenal is one of the comprehensive arms control measure with extensive monitoring system verifiable mechanism. START was signed in 1991, is set to expire in December 2009. US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Rose Gottemoeller reported to the media that, “President Obama and Russian President Medvedev have instructed that the new agreement achieve reductions lower than those in existing arms control agreements, and that the agreement should include effective verification measures drawn up frrm our experience in implementing START,” She further added that., “we have been here in Geneva for the past three days with the U.S. delegation, engaged in productive talks with our Russian counterparts, working towards a START follow-on agreement.”
 
The major hurdle for negotiators of both countries would be to ensure the verifiability of the new agreement. The negotiations were totally veiled under the secrecy and white house and Russian officials refusing to disclose framework of agreement to be negotiated. But the Arms Control Association’s Mr. Kimball said deployed nuclear weapons in each country could be reduced by 30% to 40% from the current limit of 2,200. Warhead-delivery systems could be cut by half.
 
For the bilateral talks to move forward US must address the three major contentitious issues in their bilateral relations with Rusia. Moscow has long objected to the Bush administration’s plan to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and high-powered radar in the Czech Republic. Russia also vocally opposed the Bush-era plan to develop long-range missiles with conventional warheads which Russian believes will spiral new arms competition between them. Russia is a leading proponent of a treaty that would ban the use or deployment of weapons in space. The Bush administration rejected the possibility of such an agreement.
 
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed Russian concerns about missile defense in a May 19 interview with a Russian television network, saying that the system “was never intended to be used against Russia.” Clinton added, “We want to do research with the Russians. We want to look for sites that we can both agree on and maybe mutually construct and monitor. That has been the offer we have put on the table.” The White House under President Barack Obama’s administration is willing to break with Bush policy to initiate the multi-country negotiations on a fissile-materials ban stalled more than a decade ago. The two negotiating teams are scheduled to meet during the first week of June in Geneva and report on their progress to Obama and Medvedev in July.
 

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News and Analysis, Arms Control, Russia, USA, START

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