The Russian and American delegations met in Geneva on Tuesday for a regular round of talks to fine-tune a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START.
The Tuesday round may well prove to be the last one, our political commentator says, quoting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as praising both sides' efforts to try and finalize a successor deal to the lapsed START Treaty. The bulk of the work is already behind us, Medvedev told a session of the Russian Defense Ministry that was held in Moscow last Friday.
One of the hang-ups has been including a missile defense issue in a new accord, which Moscow insists is indispensable especially in light of Washington's plans to deploy its anti-ballistic missile interceptors in Eastern Europe. If implemented, the move may well throw a spanner into the two's drive to considerably cut their nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles, analysts argue, citing possible changes in the existing nuclear parity between Russia and the United States.
Moscow has repeatedly pointed to the necessity of linking strategic offensive weapons to the missile defense system - something that was also mentioned in the expired START-1 Treaty that was signed in 1991.
In a recent interview with the Voice of Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov quoted Presidents Obama and Medvedev as underscoring the importance of dealing with a link between offensive and defensive weapons:
"The two discussed the topic during their sit-down on the sidelines of last year's G-20 summit in London, Lavrov recalls, also citing a bilateral agreement to that effect Medvedev and Obama inked in Moscow last July. Our position on the matter remains unchanged, Lavrov points out, voicing hope that a relevant clause will be included in the new START Treaty. We do hope that our American counterparts will signal readiness to join our efforts in this direction", Lavrov concluded.
Washington has frequently pointed to the US Senate, which is unlikely to ratify the new START Treaty if the document includes a clause on a link between offensive arms and the missile defense system. For his part, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian Lower House's International Affairs Committee, warned against possible divisions on the matter. The State Duma deputies are all but sure to say no to the fresh START pact, if it downplays the importance of taking into consideration the subject, Kosachev told a Washington press conference late last month. The Russian MPs will hardly cross the red lines their earlier drew, if the document contains clauses the US could unilaterally benefit from, Kosachev cautioned.
Ahead of the March 9 Geneva consultations, Russian Deputy Security Council Secretary Yury Baluyevsky, in turn, said that the issue should be resolved on a mutually advantageous basis. Otherwise, the negotiations may well come to a standstill, Baluyevsky warned.
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