The United States might bend to some suggestions from Russia on the terms of a nuclear arms control agreement the two nations hope to reach before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires in December, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, April 28).
(May. 5) -
A future U.S.-Russian arms reduction agreement might address nuclear-weapon delivery vehicles like the U.S. B-52 bomber (U.S. Air Force photo).
The Obama administration is amenable to counting both nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles when negotiating arms reductions, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller told Interfax. Moscow has been concerned that if missiles, bombers or other delivery vehicles were exempted, the United States would simply repurpose them as conventional weapons delivery systems -- replacing the nuclear warheads with non-nuclear ones.
The two nations are expected to settle on a maximum of 1,000 to 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads. The 2002 Moscow Treaty caps the number of operational deployed weapons at between 1,700 and 2,200.
The United States does not, however, intend to concede to the Russian proposal that stored nuclear warheads be counted, said Gottemoeller, top U.S. envoy to the talks with Moscow. She said that such a move would mark "a new phase and a vary different approach to the strategic arms reductions we have had in the past."
"I think we have to consider it as something for the future," she said.
The Obama administration also might be willing to abandon plans to install a missile defense radar in the Czech Republic in favor of a facility in Azerbaijan or Southern Russia, Gottemoeller said -- a concession that the Bush administration had been hesitant to make. Moscow has strongly objected to the proposed European missile shield -- which would also include missile interceptors in Poland -- characterizing the system as a threat to its security. Washington has said the installations would be aimed at Iran or other rogue nations.
Russian officials had suggested relocating the radar site as the two nations tried to overcome their differences on the missile defense plan (see GSN, Nov. 5, 2007).
“I understood from talking to Russian counterparts that the offer is still on the table,” Gottemoeller told Interfax. “I think, personally, that it is an offer that the United States should be willing to explore" (Ellen Barry, New York Times, May 5).