Global Security Newswire

Republicans on a key U.S. Senate panel said they need to view reports on Russia's compliance with a nuclear arms control treaty that expired last December, arguing the documents are relevant as they consider whether to ratify the pact's successor, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 25).

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April signed the replacement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The "New START" pact would obligate both nations to cap their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, down from the maximum of 2,200 allowed each country by 2012 under the 2002 Moscow Treaty. The deal would also limit U.S. and Russian deployed nuclear delivery vehicles to 700, with another 100 platforms allowed in reserve. The pact has been submitted for ratification by the Senate and by Russia's legislature.

A 2005 State Department compliance report on the 1991 treaty "highlighted a number of direct violations of START I by the Russians," all but one of the eight Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote in a letter to panel Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.). Senator Richard Lugar, the committee's top Republican and a vocal supporter of the pact, did not sign the letter.

The 2005 State Department document stated that Moscow had failed to declare the exit of a mobile ICBM launcher from its site of manufacture, a disclosure required under the START pact's monitoring provisions.

"Russia continues to violate START provisions relevant to these obligations," the State Department report said, adding that Moscow had "hampered" U.S. auditors seeking to verify whether concealed items inside ICBM nose cones were nuclear warheads.

"For five years and two administrations we have not seen a single report to confirm if Russia has improved its transparency with the United States and is completely honoring its treaty obligations," the Republican letter stated. The lawmakers demanded access to State Department compliance reports covering that period.

In addition, lawmakers should receive the State Department Verifiability Assessment on the new treaty and the "full negotiating record" for the terms of the pact, the letter contends. That record would cover the administration's guidance to envoys negotiating the agreement, letters, transcripts of talks and other materials.

Presidential administrations have generally rejected such demands, according to the Post. A disagreement on the matter could produce an extended standoff between the White House and the legislative body that must approve the new treaty.

In a reply to the Republican requests, Kerry noted that senators had conducted 10 hearings on the treaty that included testimony from administration advocates of the pact as well as Democratic and Republican specialists with varying views on ratification.

In addition, lawmakers have received a confidential National Intelligence Estimate representing "the consensus of the 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. government on the United States' ability to monitor Russia's compliance with the agreement, which limits both nation's strategic nuclear forces," Kerry said. That document and the State Department compliance reports are accessible to lawmakers, he stated.

The panel is scheduled to soon review the intelligence estimate in a closed meeting, while another hearing on the treaty is expected by the middle of this month.

"I look forward to completing this process as soon as possible," Kerry stated, referring to ratification of the new pact (Walter Pincus, Washington Post, July 6).

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Duma legislative panels today to move toward ratifying the treaty, ITAR-Tass reported.

“According to our estimates, this treaty unequivocally strengthens Russia's security. The treaty is of unquestionable benefit to bilateral relations with the United States and stability in the world. Having signed the treaty the two countries contributed to the nuclear nonproliferation regime and in perspective -- to broadening the process of nuclear disarmament,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said (ITAR-Tass, July 6).