Geneva hosts new START talks

Another round of Russian-US talks on the START Treaty began in Geneva on March 9^th. 

The new START Treaty on reducing offensive and defensive strategic weapons has been significantly promoted by the two presidents. The priority provisions of the Treaty were recently discussed by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

General provisions of the Treaty were discussed last summer in Moscow. Then Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agreed to constrain strategic missile carriers by 500-1100 units and missile warheads by 1500-1675 units within 7 years. The new Treaty was expected to be signed by December 5^th, 2009 when the previous one, signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush in 1991, expired. These plans failed though.

Currently, negotiations are underway. According to Russian and US officials the text of the document is 95-97 percent agreed upon.  Sergey Lavrov says the new document is to set the record lowest limit for strategic offensive weapons. It will take into account interaction between strategic offensive and strategic defensive weapons, that is interdependence between START and ABMs. The Treaty will rest upon a parity basis and stipulate equal control for each party. There is also a 200-page extension protocol to the Treaty which has military technical detail and is under permanent consideration.

The new Treaty has its opponents. John Bolton, the former US representative to the UN, has recently expressed such views in The Washington Times. He believes that a reduction of warheads will hurt Washington and its allies more than Russia. He writes that “perhaps even more disturbing are press-reports that Moscow is still insisting on constraining US missile-defense capabilities. Limits our missile – defense programs, however minutely, that alone would be more than sufficient reason to defeat it in the Senate, whatever its limits on warheads and delivery system”.