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US, Russia see deal on missile cuts by year-end
Singapore (AFP) Nov 15, 2009 The leaders of Russia and the United States said Sunday they were on target to agree by the end of the year the text of a new treaty setting out major cuts in their nuclear weapons arsenals. But a senior White House adviser warned there was not time for the successor to the 1991 START agreement to be ratified by December 5 when the old treaty elapses, meaning a temporary bridging deal would be needed. "I expect that we can have a final text of the agreement by December," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore. Obama said: "Our goal continues to be to complete the negotiations and to be able to sign a deal before the end of the year. "I'm confident that if we work hard and with a sense of urgency about it that we should be able to get that done." Medvedev said there were "technical" issues that needed to be resolved on the agreement, which will take over from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that was signed just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. "We agreed to give an extra dynamic to these talks to find solutions to outstanding questions," Medvedev said after the conclusion of the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Singapore. "In some cases these are technical questions, in other cases these are questions which demand political decisions." Russian officials have insisted the treaty must establish a link between missile defence systems and strategic arms and have also expressed concern about the number of "carriers" that can deliver nuclear warheads. Russia also does not want the new treaty to require US inspections of its mobile ground-base intercontinental ballistic missiles -- as was the case under START -- saying this is unfair as the US does not possess such systems. US and Russian experts have been holding almost non-stop closed door talks in Geneva to agree on every detail of the new document. White House advisor Mike McFaul said that while an agreement was expected in December, it could not be ratified by the legislatures in both countries by December 5 when START expires. "What I do know for sure is that we will not have a ratified treaty in place by December 5. It still has to go through the US Senate and the Russian Duma," he told reporters. "What is for sure is that we do need a bridging agreement," he said, adding this was being worked on in the talks in parallel to discussions on the main treaty. During a visit by Obama to Moscow earlier this year, the two presidents called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads in the Russian and US strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.
earlier related report Obama will want to hear from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev whether the Kremlin detects any signs of Tehran moderating its defiance and whether Russia will back tough sanctions if diplomacy fails. But in their fourth meeting since April, Medvedev will also be seeking assurances from Obama that Russian concerns will be addressed in a new nuclear weapons reduction treaty that both sides are racing to agree by December. Russia has the strongest ties with Iran of any major power, and its capacity to provide technical help for the Iranian nuclear drive is seen by some analysts as giving it an unmatched power of leverage in Tehran. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov made a surprise visit to Tehran ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Singapore, declaring there was still hope for resolving the stand-off. "I do believe that there is room for compromise and improvement if the political will is there, and this is consistently the view of Moscow on this issue," he told Iranian television. An Obama administration official said that aside from Iran and the nuclear arms treaty, the two leaders would also dwell on North Korea's own nuclear quest. "We will continue the very constructive and ongoing series of meetings that the president has had with President Medvedev," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communications. Obama and Medvedev are scheduled to meet on the margins of APEC on Sunday afternoon, shortly before the US president leaves Singapore for a state visit to China. Obama is also likely to bring up Iran and North Korea with Chinese President Hu Jintao in the coming week in Beijing. China and Russia, both permanent UN Security Council members, have been sceptical about ratcheting up sanctions on Iran. But there is mounting impatience in the West, with world powers still waiting for Tehran to respond to an offer brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog which would see states including Russia help Iran enrich uranium. The West suspects Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon under cover of its civilian nuclear energy programme. Like Iran, Russia has said there is no evidence to support these accusations. But it has also urged Tehran to show maximum transparency and cooperate with the international community. Medvedev has given carefully worded statements hinting that tougher sanctions cannot be ruled out. "I do not want that all this ends up with the adopting of international sanctions because sanctions, as a rule, lead in a complex and dangerous direction," he told the German magazine Der Spiegel earlier this month. "But if there is no movement forward then no one is going to exclude such a scenario." Medvedev is meanwhile set to press Obama about a new nuclear weapons reduction agreement to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). With the old treaty due to run out on December 5, Russian officials have insisted that the new agreement must establish a link between missile defence systems and strategic arms. Obama's move to scrap missile shield plans in eastern Europe appeared to have lent fresh impetus to the negotiations. But there remain reported differences on limits to the number of "carriers" that can deliver warheads such as ground-based ballistic missiles, submarines and heavy bombers. Yet with diplomats working flat out at talks in Geneva to finalise a document, both sides say they are determined to clinch agreement by December. "We are working for the new agreement to be ready within the deadline set by the two presidents," said Sergei Prikhodko, top foreign policy aide to Medvedev, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. From the Obama administration, Rhodes said: "We would like to complete that agreement by the end of the year." Share This Article With Planet Earth
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N. Korea can prosper if it gives up nuclear weapons: ObamaSeoul (AFP) Nov 13, 2009 North Korea can achieve security and prosperity if it honours its commitment to give up nuclear weapons, US President Barack Obama said in an interview published Friday. The impoverished communist state's nuclear and missile programmes are a grave concern to the world and make the North itself less secure, he told South Korea's Yonhap news agency in a written interview. But "negotiations ... read more |
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