HOPES OF a new nuclear arms reduction deal between Moscow and Washington appeared to be in doubt last night, after Russia said there could be no agreement unless the US was prepared to heed its concerns on missile defence.
Barack Obama flies into Moscow today for his first trip to Russia as US president. The summit’s centrepiece is supposed to be a groundbreaking agreement on nuclear arms reduction.
Mr Obama and Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev agreed during their last meeting in April to hold talks on a successor treaty to the 1991 Start-1 pact, which expires in December. But attempts to reach a deal appear to have come unstuck over the same problem that defeated the Bush administration: the Kremlin’s unbending hostility to the Pentagon’s planned missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. While Mr Obama has agreed to review the plan, he is not prepared to abandon it.
Yesterday Mr Medvedev said that any new arms reduction treaty was definitively “linked” to the US’s missile defence ambitions in central Europe.
He said: “We consider these issues are interconnected. It is sufficient to show restraint and show an ability to compromise. And then we can agree on the basis of a new deal on Start.”
Mr Medvedev’s comments place Mr Obama in an uncomfortable position on the eve of one of the biggest foreign policy trips of his presidency. If he makes concessions he risks a political backlash at home and the charge of capitulation. If he doesn’t, he may emerge from the US-Russia summit no more successful than George Bush.
Yesterday Russian officials revealed that they had not been able to reach agreement on a “framework document” setting out a blueprint for nuclear talks – an ominous sign. Mr Obama, however, made clear his determination to improve relations.
“I believe that Americans and Russians have many common interests, interests that our governments have not pursued as actively as we could have,” he told Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Today he will meet Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister and the man who most people believe still runs the country. Mr Obama described Mr Putin slightingly last week as having “one foot in the past”. In his interview, Mr Obama acknowledged “Russian sensitivities” over the shield, but said it was needed to protect the US and Europe from a nuclear-armed Iranian missile.
He made clear he would not accept Moscow’s linkage between arms control and missile defence, a statement that suggest there is little prospect of a rapid breakthrough.
Yesterday analysts said there were profound, irreconcilable differences between both sides, not just over the shield, but technical issues including counting, verification, and delivery systems. – (Guardian Service)
On the table
- A “framework” deal likely to lead to negotiating a new strategic arms control pact to replace the 1991 Start treaty before it expires in December.
- Broad agreement on cutting warheads from 1,700-2,200 to about 1,500 but disputes on whether the pact will be tied to the US’s planned eastern European missile defence bases.
- Moscow expected to grant permission for US aircraft to cross Russian airspace en route to Afghanistan.
- Agreement on putting pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and missiles programmes, but differences over how to treat Iran remain.
- Russia seeking US support for its proposed pan-European security treaty that would permanently ban Nato expansion.