U.S., Russia Look to New Arms Control Effort

The United States and Russia are considering how to replace two bilateral nuclear arms control treaties set to expire in coming years, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 13).

The two nations should “look ahead to the challenges and possibilities that lie beyond the expiration of the START Treaty in 2009 and the Moscow Treaty in 2012,” U.S. Ambassador to Russia William Burns said yesterday.

The START pact, which prohibits both countries from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads on 1,600 delivery systems, is due to expire in 2009.  The Moscow Treaty, which calls on Moscow and Washington to cut the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200, expires in 2012.

“At the direction of our presidents, we have begun a strategic security dialogue to consider what we want in place when the START Treaty expires, what further steps to pursue and what sort of transparency and confidence-building regime makes the most sense,” Burns said during a speech at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

While Burns lauded U.S. and Russian nuclear arms control and security efforts, he said more remains to be done, AP reported.

“There never has been a moment when America and Russia, still possessing nuclear capabilities and responsibilities that no other nations can match, have had a greater opportunity to demonstrate real leadership,” he said.  “It would be a huge mistake, not only for the two of us but for the sake of global order, to miss that opportunity” (Jim Heintz, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, March 2).

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