Presidents Make Progress on Phone

Update: The United States looks as though it got its way on missile defense in the game of diplomatic one-upmanship. Realizing a START replacement treaty with formal linkage to American plans for a European missile shield would never get past the militarists in Congress*, the two sides agreed to a work around in which missile defense is stated to be a part of overall nuclear disarmament in the preamble of the agreement--aspirational rather than binding language. Nevertheless the Russians have the ultimate option of withdrawing from the treaty, just as the US withdrew from the ABM treaty, if they believe the intent of the agreement is broken. Now the parties appear to be finally ready to sign an agreement in Prague, not Kiev, on April 8th.

On Sunday, Presidents Medvedev and Obama made progress narrowing differences in the START II negotiations over the telephone. The leaders reviewed the negotiations and agreed to provide additional guidance to their diplomats meeting in Geneva.  The area of disagreement appeared to be the status of American strategic antimissile systems, which the Americans believed should not be covered in a replacement treaty intended to significantly reduce each country's stockpile of offensive warheads and delivery systems. The US Secretary of State will travel to Moscow this week, and meet with the Russian President as well as her counterpart to discuss the new strategic arms limitation treaty.  She will not be meeting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who publicly linked resolving missile defense issues to the negotiations. {"start II treaty"} The Russian government now appears to be ready to sign the new agreement, possibly in Kiev, Ukraine to emphasize the importance of nuclear non-proliferation. The Ukraine voluntarily rid itself of nuclear weapons when it became an independent state. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking during a press conference in Ukraine on Tuesday, the new agreement will contain a legally binding link to missile defense.

*Senate Minority Leader and Minority Whip wrote to Obama March 15 to drive home just that point."As you know, it is highly unlikely that the Senate would ratify a treaty that includes such a linkage, including a treaty that includes unilateral declarations that the Russian Federation could use as leverage against you or your successors as missile defense decisions are made," they wrote. However Senator Lugar (R-IN), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said he plans to support ratification of the treaty in the Senate.