President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement in Moscow today to try to shrink the two countries' nuclear arsenals by a third or more. The move is supposed to be the first step in a push to revive the moribund arms control process. But there's still a lot left to negotiate: Russian and American diplomats weren't able to come to terms on a controversial plan to put missile interceptors in eastern Europe.
The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires at the end of the year, and the "joint understanding" signed today commits the United States and Russia to a new treaty that will reduce both strategic warheads and delivery vehicles.
If the new agreement takes effect, it will accelerate an ongoing reduction of U.S. and Russian stockpiles. In signing the 2001 Moscow Treaty, the United States and Russia committed to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals by 2012; the two countries set a ceiling of 2,200 warheads and 1,600 launch vehicles. The new treaty would set the bar lower, limiting the number of strategic warheads to between 1500-1675, and reducing delivery vehicles to a range of 500-1100.
Strikingly, the two countries did not reach agreement on a controversial plan to site missile defense assets in Eastern Europe. The administration of President George W. Bush quit the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2001, paving the way for the deployment of a limited missile defense system; in a joint statement on missile defense, Obama and Medvedev made pledges "to work together to analyze the ballistic missile challenges of the 21st century" and "to cooperate on monitoring the development of missile programs around the world," but their statement fell short of resolving an issue that has been a source of serious friction between Washington and Moscow.
This agreement, however, may be the first real step toward Obama's goal of a "world without nuclear weapons." The president first outlined that vision in an April speech in Prague, but the administration, thus far, has offered few specifics on how it plans to get there. Still, it's a goal the president seems to take seriously, and as the New York Times reported this weekend, it's also one that dates back to the president's college days.
In parallel, both the United States and Russia are talking about reviving the global market for nuclear energy. In a joint statement on nuclear cooperation, the two countries outlined their "common vision of the growth of clean, safe, secure and affordable nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." That could include providing nuclear fuel cycle services to developing countries, a potentially lucrative market.
The current Moscow summit will also have implications for the war in Afghanistan. Voice of America reports that Russia has approved U.S. military overflights, meaning U.S. military aircraft can ferry troops, weapons and munitions to Afghanistan across Russian airspace. Previously, Russia restricted U.S. shipments to non-military equipment transported by train.
Arms-control advocates have welcomed the summit with cautious optimism. In a statement, John Isaacs, executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said the two countries still have a "long way to go" on reducing nuclear threat. "It took George W. Bush eight years to unravel U.S.-Russian relations, and it will take Barack Obama more than eight months to stitch things back together," he said.
[PHOTO: Kremlin.ru]
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