ianstone
06-16-2010, 09:48 PM
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/bitrix/templates/tmt/img/logo.gif (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/)
Issue 4414. Last Updated: 06/17/2010 http://www.themoscowtimes.com/bitrix/templates/tmt/img/calendar.gif (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/us-denies-secret-russian-deal-on-new-start/408429.html#)
U.S. Denies Secret Russian Deal on New START
17 June 2010
Reuters
WASHINGTON — There were no secret deals made with Moscow on missile defense or any other issue during negotiations on the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, the chief U.S. negotiator on the pact said.
Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Rose_Gottemoeller/) was trying to assuage critics who say they fear that the U.S. administration made explicit or implicit concessions to the Kremlin that could limit the future development of U.S. missile defenses.
"Let me state unequivocally today on the record before this committee that there were no, I repeat no, backroom deals made in connection with the New START treaty; not on missile defense nor on any other issue," Gottemoeller told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
But Senator Jim DeMint (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Jim_DeMint/), one of the treaty's skeptics, said he would continue to press for the transcript of the negotiations with the Russians to be released before the Senate votes on whether to approve the treaty.
Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in April, but Senate consent is required for the document to go into force.
The pact commits the two countries with 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons to significant cuts in their strategic arsenals, although still leaving them with more than enough firepower to annihilate each other.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/John_Kerry/) has said he wants the panel to vote on the treaty before the August recess, so the full Senate can approve it later this year. The treaty needs a supermajority of 67 votes for Senate approval, so Obama, a Democrat, will need some Republican support.
The New START does not contain limits on missile defense systems. But DeMint and other Republicans say they are worried by a unilateral Russian warning that if U.S. missile defense plans threaten its security, Moscow could take advantage of an exit clause and withdraw from the pact.
DeMint said the Russian warning — which he paraphrased as "we [the U.S.] cannot develop anything that threatens their ability to destroy us" — suggested that the Cold War doctrine of "mutually assured destruction," or "MAD," lived on in the new treaty.
The Pentagon's representative at the START talks, Ed Warner (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Ed_Warner/), testified Tuesday that the MAD doctrine did survive, but this was only because the United States and Russia still cannot shield themselves against all of each other's missiles.
The missile defense plans of the previous U.S. administration as well as Obama's administration were aimed at defending the United States against "limited attacks" by third countries like North Korea, Warner said.
But these systems were "nowhere near" being able to defend against the kind of volley that Russia could launch. So Washington and Moscow still depended on mutual deterrence, a situation that can be characterized as mutually assured destruction, Warner said.
"We're not there because we like it. We're there because it is just the way it is," Warner said.
Yes but what if ?
Issue 4414. Last Updated: 06/17/2010 http://www.themoscowtimes.com/bitrix/templates/tmt/img/calendar.gif (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/us-denies-secret-russian-deal-on-new-start/408429.html#)
U.S. Denies Secret Russian Deal on New START
17 June 2010
Reuters
WASHINGTON — There were no secret deals made with Moscow on missile defense or any other issue during negotiations on the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, the chief U.S. negotiator on the pact said.
Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Rose_Gottemoeller/) was trying to assuage critics who say they fear that the U.S. administration made explicit or implicit concessions to the Kremlin that could limit the future development of U.S. missile defenses.
"Let me state unequivocally today on the record before this committee that there were no, I repeat no, backroom deals made in connection with the New START treaty; not on missile defense nor on any other issue," Gottemoeller told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
But Senator Jim DeMint (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Jim_DeMint/), one of the treaty's skeptics, said he would continue to press for the transcript of the negotiations with the Russians to be released before the Senate votes on whether to approve the treaty.
Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in April, but Senate consent is required for the document to go into force.
The pact commits the two countries with 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons to significant cuts in their strategic arsenals, although still leaving them with more than enough firepower to annihilate each other.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/John_Kerry/) has said he wants the panel to vote on the treaty before the August recess, so the full Senate can approve it later this year. The treaty needs a supermajority of 67 votes for Senate approval, so Obama, a Democrat, will need some Republican support.
The New START does not contain limits on missile defense systems. But DeMint and other Republicans say they are worried by a unilateral Russian warning that if U.S. missile defense plans threaten its security, Moscow could take advantage of an exit clause and withdraw from the pact.
DeMint said the Russian warning — which he paraphrased as "we [the U.S.] cannot develop anything that threatens their ability to destroy us" — suggested that the Cold War doctrine of "mutually assured destruction," or "MAD," lived on in the new treaty.
The Pentagon's representative at the START talks, Ed Warner (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mt_profile/Ed_Warner/), testified Tuesday that the MAD doctrine did survive, but this was only because the United States and Russia still cannot shield themselves against all of each other's missiles.
The missile defense plans of the previous U.S. administration as well as Obama's administration were aimed at defending the United States against "limited attacks" by third countries like North Korea, Warner said.
But these systems were "nowhere near" being able to defend against the kind of volley that Russia could launch. So Washington and Moscow still depended on mutual deterrence, a situation that can be characterized as mutually assured destruction, Warner said.
"We're not there because we like it. We're there because it is just the way it is," Warner said.
Yes but what if ?