The United States presented Russia with an offer last week that could dramatically improve the likelihood of agreement on a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ahead of the 1991 pact's expiration on Dec. 5, Moscow indicated today (see GSN, Nov. 3).
(Nov. 5) -
U.S. national security adviser James Jones, left, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit to Moscow last week. Russia said Jones had presented a new offer from Washington on replacing a key nuclear arms control treaty (Getty Images).
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in July to cut their nations' respective deployed strategic nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads under the new agreement, down from the 2,200-warhead limit the states are required to meet by 2012. The leaders also pledged to restrict strategic delivery vehicles on each side to between 500 and 1,100.
"We hope the constructive proposal that U.S. national security adviser James Jones made in Moscow last week will let us bring our positions together and arrive at a balanced document," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said today, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, Oct. 29).
The content of the U.S. offer was not immediately clear.
U.S. and Russian diplomats are expected to resume talks on the new agreement Monday in Geneva, Switzerland.
"We hope that this will be the last round and that by Dec. 5 we will have agreed a new accord," Nesterenko said. "Both sides are aware of the responsibility they have shouldered and are doing everything to achieve the necessary results. There is progress."
Some obstacles to final agreement on the treaty remain, he noted.
"We have a saying in negotiations: 'Nothing is agreed until everything is.' So until we have agreed every last comma, any attempt to assess how far we have come may be deceptive," the spokesman said.
Moscow still wants to eliminate more nuclear-weapon delivery systems under a new treaty than Washington, Nesterenko said: "Lower limits must be set on the number of strategic carriers, including ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and heavy bombers."
Establishing a formal connection between strategic offensive weapons and defense systems remains "extremely important since it will make up for the absence of an agreement on missile defense shield," he added.
Nesterenko also reaffirmed Moscow's call for a new treaty to reduce the scope and complexity of audits aimed at verifying compliance by each side (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 5).
U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle addressed the ongoing talks in a meeting Tuesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, RIA Novosti reported.
The officials considered "the progress of strategic arms control negotiations" and other matters, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement (RIA Novosti, Nov. 4).