[NYTr] Bush wants START nuclear arms reduction treaty to lapse

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Aug 28, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL2884581820070828?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews

U.S., Russia must keep nuclear treaty: U.S. senator

By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the United States will be making a
mistake if they allow the START nuclear arms reduction treaty to lapse
in 2009, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, a leading disarmament advocate,
said on Monday.

The treaty, signed in 1991, set ceilings on the size of the Russian and
U.S. nuclear arsenals and became a symbol of the end of the Cold War.
Washington has indicated it will not extend it in 2009 but wants to
replace it with a more up-to-date pact.

Sen. Lugar said that without this treaty there would be no mechanism
for each side to verify the other in observing arms control treaties,
at a time of weakening trust between Moscow and Washington .

"The United States and Russia must extend the START Treaty's
verification and transparency elements, which will expire in 2009,"
Lugar told a conference of arms control experts in Moscow.

"I am concerned by reports that U.S.-Russian negotiations do not
include discussions of a legally-binding treaty or the continuation of
a formal verification regime.

"The current Russian-American relationship is complicated enough
without introducing more elements of uncertainty into the nuclear
relationship," Lugar said.

Russia has warned it may return to its Cold War stance of aiming its
nuclear missiles at targets in Europe if Washington goes ahead with its
plan for a missile defense shield in Europe.

In another sign of U.S.-Russian tensions, Moscow has suspended its
compliance with a conventional arms treaty, citing what it says is a
NATO arms build-up in eastern Europe.

Sen. Lugar and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn were the authors of a
cooperation program through which the United States has been working
with Russia for the past 15 years to destroy their stocks of chemical
and biological weapons.

© Reuters 2007.