Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, traded so-called instruments of ratification — paperwork that brings the treaty into force and starts the clock ticking on verification and inspection procedures for the two sides’ nuclear arsenals.
Mrs. Clinton, speaking at a security conference here where she and Mr. Lavrov conducted the brief ceremony, said the treaty was an example of “clear-eyed cooperation that is in everybody’s interests.”
She said that she and Mr. Lavrov had discussed further arms control initiatives, including a pact to reduce stockpiles of tactical nuclear weapons, as well as one that would scrap long-range warheads stored in warehouses.
And Mrs. Clinton promoted the idea of cooperation in a missile-defense system for Europe, noting that last fall in Lisbon, Portugal, President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia embraced the idea of working with the United States on the technology. Russia had long opposed American missile-defense plans, arguing that they were aimed at weakening its defenses.
New Start cuts the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550, and the number of launchers and heavy bombers to 800. Within 45 days, the United States and Russia must share details on the number, location and technical characteristics of their arsenals. Sixty days from now, inspectors will be permitted to investigate the nuclear sites of the other country.
For President Obama, Saturday’s ceremony fulfilled one of his signature policies, curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. But it also illustrated the political hurdles to achieving even a modest arms control treaty.
Mr. Obama signed the treaty in April 2010 with Mr. Medvedev, but it took nearly 8 months for the agreement to be approved by the United States Senate, where Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, held up approval because of concerns about financing for nuclear research.
Its prospects looked grim late last year, with several senators saying they did not want to vote on it during a lame-duck session, and with a slimmer Democratic majority coming into office in January.
But after an intense lobbying campaign by Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the treaty was passed just before Christmas. The Duma, the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament, voted to approve the treaty a month later.
In addition to the ratification of New Start on Saturday, the so-called quartet — a group that deals with the Middle East consisting of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — convened. This meeting was intended to reaffirm support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, even amid the turmoil in Egypt and the Arab world.
The United States was reluctant to hold the meeting, a senior Western diplomat said, but the Europeans, in particular, wanted to make the point that change in the Middle East was a new opportunity for peace and that stagnation between Israel and Palestine was a bad signal.
“Our analysis is, because of the events in Egypt, we must react and send a signal the peace process is alive,” the European diplomat said. Another quartet meeting will follow in the next month, he said.
Mrs. Clinton deflected a question about how the turmoil in Egypt and other Arab countries would affect Israel or the peace process. In its eagerness to avoid the issue, the administration lined up with Turkey. Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said: “It is better not to talk about Israel-Palestine now. It is better to separate these issues.”
No comments:
Post a Comment