United States, Russia Making Progress on Arms Reduction Treaty

13 October 2009 By Merle David Kellerhals Jr. Staff Writer

Washington — The United States and Russia are making progress in replacing a current treaty for reducing nuclear arsenals with one that goes further in physically reducing arsenals and also lessening perceived tensions over nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says.

President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed at a meeting in April to reduce nuclear arsenals well below the levels called for in the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I.

“Our goal remains to complete the work on START by December 5 when the current agreement expires,” Clinton said at a press conference October 13 in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“The global initiative on nuclear terrorism to create a joint effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and set new standards is another important step that we are pursuing together,” she added. Clinton said she is looking forward to Russia’s leadership in the Global Nuclear Security Summit next April.

Lavrov said the technical negotiating teams working on the successor agreement to START I have shown “considerable progress.”

As owners of more than 95 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, President Obama has said, the world’s two leading nuclear powers must lead by example. Obama and Medvedev signed a joint understanding to reduce nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them by up to a third from current levels. A legally binding treaty will be completed later this year.

The mutual agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals is part of a broader goal of reducing nuclear tensions across the globe and preventing rogue states and extremists from obtaining some of the world’s most dangerous weapons. Obama and Medvedev said they wanted to take concrete steps toward the long-term goal of disarmament while sending a powerful message to countries such as North Korea and Iran, whose controversial nuclear development programs are subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions and expanded scrutiny.

Both nations agreed to reduce their strategic nuclear warheads to 1,500–1,675 after the agreement comes into force. The 1991 START treaty expires December 5; this new agreement would replace it.

The new framework calls for reducing the means to deliver nuclear weapons to between 500 and 1,100 vehicles, which include long-range strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear-powered submarines.

Iran's Nuclear Program

Clinton acknowledged that Iran’s nuclear weapons development program remains a serious concern. “We’re working closely with Russia through the P5+1 process” to resolve numerous issues, she said.

Six nations — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, known as the P5+1 — have been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, but talks stalled about a year ago when they insisted that Iran would have to suspend uranium enrichment. The group includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. This group grew out of earlier efforts by Britain, France and Germany to convince Iranian officials to suspend uranium enrichment in return for a package of incentives.

The six powers offered Iran a package of trade and diplomatic incentives three years ago to forgo its uranium enrichment efforts, and added to the incentives last year, but Iranian authorities continued to reject suspension of uranium enrichment as a precondition to talks. Uranium enrichment is one necessary component of weapons development to build a nuclear bomb.

The next step in the process occurs October 18 when Iranian officials are to meet with representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to discuss a plan in which Iran will ship the majority of its stockpile of lightly enriched uranium to be enriched in Russia to a higher grade. The finished uranium would be shipped back to Iran, where it would be used to fuel a research reactor. Iran has said it was seeking enriched uranium for a civilian nuclear-powered electricity program.

“At the current stage,” Lavrov said, “all forces should be thrown at supporting the negotiating process.”

Clinton agreed, saying: “We believe it is important to pursue the diplomatic track and to do everything we can to make it successful. We believe that Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear energy, but that it is not entitled to nuclear weapons. Russia agrees with us on that.”

If the Iranians transfer the low-enriched uranium to Russia for further processing, it would be a significant confidence-building measure.

Missile Defense

Clinton also said she and Lavrov held a long discussion on where the two nations stand regarding a European-based limited anti-ballistic missile system.

“We are very interested in working with Russia to develop cooperation, including a joint threat assessment and intensified efforts to establish a joint data exchange center, as our presidents agreed to in July, as a means of making missile defense a common enterprise against what we believe are increasingly common threats,” Clinton said.

Clinton and Lavrov also addressed issues related to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Afghanistan, NATO expansion, Georgia and Russia, and human rights.

Clinton met briefly with Medvedev outside Moscow at his Barvikha residence.