Arms Control & Non Proliferation

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07 May 2009
Reducing Nuclear Arsenals Is a Critical U.S.-Russian Concern

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Reducing nuclear arsenals is among the highest priorities for the United States and Russia, but an array of other international issues from the Middle East to North Korea also fills the crowded agenda of the two nations.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for talks May 7 before heading to the White House for consultations with President Obama in a week in Washington that has been filled with high-stakes foreign affairs issues. The president and secretary have held critical trilateral consultations with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to quell a rising Taliban insurgency in both countries. It is an issue that also includes Russia, which has opened a northern supply corridor for the NATO-led security force in Afghanistan.

Clinton said she and Lavrov exchanged views on a range of issues, including Afghanistan, North Korea, the Middle East, Iran, Georgia and the NATO-Russia Council. “We are very focused on ... making sure that the United States and Russia have a very vigorous, ongoing dialogue among our two governments,” she said during a joint press briefing in the ornate Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department.

“We have attached great importance in our negotiations to strategic stability, including the preparation of a new arrangement that will replace START-1, which will expire in early December,” Lavrov said through an interpreter. He said a date for the July summit will be announced soon, and will include details of the summit agenda.

Both President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev committed to a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace START-1. They said during talks in London on April 1 at the G20 Financial Summit that they wanted to see a first draft of the treaty by the time they meet again at the Moscow Summit in early July before the Group of Eight (G8) Summit in Italy. (See “U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Reduction Talks Begin.”)

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START-1, expires December 5. Its replacement is seen as a first step toward a nuclear-free agenda proposed by Obama and Medvedev. The United States and Russia own 95 percent of the strategic nuclear warheads in the world.

“The foreign minister and I discussed how we can, through our own efforts together, set a standard and an example to improve the security of nuclear facilities and prevent the proliferation of nuclear material around the world,” Clinton said.

Clinton also said the overall bilateral agenda is expanding and includes the global economic crisis, climate change and the Arctic.

“These are areas where we think it is in our interest to cooperate and it is in the interest of the world that the United States and Russia do so,” Clinton said.

STABILITY IN GEORGIA

Clinton said she and Lavrov discussed equal concerns about Georgia and its two breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia and Georgia fought a brief war over the regions in August 2008.

“We have [had] the opportunity to discuss the conditions on the ground there and the need for stability,” Clinton said. “And I believe that Minister Lavrov, as well as the Russian government, recognizes that stability and a peaceful resolution to the tensions in Georgia is in everyone’s interest.”

Clinton added that a disagreement in one area does not preclude cooperative work in other areas.

“As far as the situation in the Caucasus — especially in the South Caucasus — we have discussed it today,” Lavrov said. “True, we do have obvious differences. But we agree on one thing: We need to do our best in order to achieve stability there.”

On the nuclear weapons ambitions of Iran and North Korea, both Clinton and Lavrov said they are working together and through multilateral groups to find a resolution that will prevent the further proliferation of nuclear weapons.

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