Nuclear powers come in from the cold
July 7, 2009
Rebecca Johnson
guardian.co.uk
7 July 2009
Taking another step towards rebuilding constructive relations between the US and Russia, presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have given a welcome signal of their intentions to go beyond the unverified Moscow treaty of 2002 and sign a further nuclear arms control treaty before the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expires on 5 December. Because of the need to meet that deadline, combined with the fact that the Obama administration has only just begun its review of US security and nuclear policies, the American and Russian negotiating teams have focused on securing a modest initial agreement to get nuclear disarmament back on track.
Of course it will be useful to reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,500-1,675 and limit the strategic delivery vehicles to 500-1,100, but such levels could still destroy the earth several times over. If taken as target totals, today's announcement would be disappointing. But the numbers at this stage are less relevant than the significance of the two largest nuclear powers getting back to the negotiating table to work on collective security and commit to progressive objectives for legally binding, verifiable nuclear reductions.
Read the full article here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/07/nuclear-powers-us-russia
Comments
No comments have been made on this article.
Please login to leave a comment.