Obama renews call to cut nuclear arms
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama, who once declared his vision of a world without nuclear weapons, on Wednesday indicated he intends to bargain with Russia over new reductions, rather than make cuts on his own. However, in doing so, he is asking for co-operation from a former Cold War foe in no mood to agree.
Relations between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are tense, reflecting U.S. concerns about human rights abuses in Russia, the two leaders’ disagreement over Syria’s civil war and other points of contention.
That does not mean the U.S. won’t eventually shrink its arsenal beyond what is required by an existing U.S.Russia treaty that took effect just two years ago. It probably will. But it might not happen on Obama’s watch.
Obama declared in Berlin on Wednesday that he wants to cut U.S. nuclear arms by another one-third, which would shrink the total to between 1,000 and 1,100 weapons for bombers and land- and sea-based missiles. He did not explicitly rule out doing this unilaterally, but he said he intends to “seek negotiated cuts” with Russia — an approach some nuclear disarmament advocates said could lead to a dead end.
Bruce Blair, co-founder of Global Zero, an international group that advocates the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons, said negotiating a new treaty with Moscow would be “practically a death knell for arms control,” in part because there is strong opposition in the U.S. Senate to making any further reductions in U.S. nuclear arms.
Opponents wasted no time denouncing Obama’s plan.
Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who opposes nuclear cuts, said Secretary of State John Kerry assured him on Tuesday that any further reductions would occur in treaty negotiations with Russia, subject to Senate ratification.
Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Obama’s approach “strains credulity” in light of what McKeon called Russian “cheating” on an existing nuclear arms control treaty. He did not elaborate, but in letters to Obama in February and April, McKeon said the unpublicized Russian violations were significantly destabilizing the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms relationship.
Among the things the Russians are upset about is the U.S. missile defence system in Europe, which they regard as a potential threat to the viability of their own nuclear arsenal. Washington and Moscow have been arguing over this for years, and the U.S. position remains that it will not agree to any limitations on its missile defences.