Global Security Newswire

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday expressed satisfaction with progress in preparing a deal that would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, stating that the new pact was "95 percent ready," the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 22).

"I expected the negotiations to take longer, but in the space of six months we have created the backbone of a document," he said.

Last July, Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama announced that they would reduce each of their countries' deployed strategic nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 weapons in the new agreement, down from the 2,200-warhead ceiling the sides must each meet by the end of 2012 under the another treaty.

Despite his declared optimism about the ongoing negotiations, Medvedev noted concerns about how U.S. missile defense ambitions could affect Russia's strategic security.

"It is sly to talk about strategic nuclear forces without mentioning missile defense. If nuclear missiles are launched, then defense missiles can be launched also," he said (Peter Leonard, Associated Press/Washington Post, Jan. 24).

Moscow "will definitely raise the issue" of a planned U.S. missile shield in Europe when the talks resume, Reuters quoted him as saying (see GSN, Jan. 15; Amie Ferris-Rotman, Reuters I, Jan. 24).

U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones and a Russian official serving in the same capacity are expected to help guide their nations' negotiating teams in resolving remaining differences over the treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday (Conor Sweeney, Reuters II, Jan. 22).

The White House echoed Russia's positive remarks on the negotiations, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We are pleased with the progress made and expect negotiations to continue as we work to iron out the final details," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said Friday.

Jones and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, in Moscow last week, "held productive talks with Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, other senior Russian military officials and the Russian START negotiating team," Hammer said.

The meeting addressed "the ongoing effort to finalize a START agreement as well as other security issues, including Afghanistan, Iran, missile defense and continued U.S.-Russian cooperation on issues of mutual concern," he said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Jan. 23).