U.S., Russia to Slash Nuclear Arsenals

By Cat Lazaroff

WASHINGTON, DC, May 13, 2002 (ENS) - President George W. Bush announced this morning that the U.S. and Russia have agreed to cut their nuclear arsenals by more than 50 percent. The planned cuts were revealed within days of closed door Congressional briefings over Russia's alleged plans to resume nuclear testing, and less than two weeks before Bush's planned trip to Russia.

President Bush made the surprise announcement this morning before boarding a plane for a planned trip to Chicago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and U.S. President George W. Bush at a meeting in the U.S. in November 2001. (White House photo by Eric Draper)

The United States now has about 7,000 strategic nuclear weapons, and Russia has about 6,000.

Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on targets for nuclear arsenal cuts in principle last year. Diplomats from both nations have been working out the details of the agreements for the past year.

President Bush had initially proposed an informal agreement, rather than a formal treaty that must be approved by the Democratically controlled Senate, but the U.S. ultimately agreed to the more binding formal treaty. Bush and Putin plan to sign the agreement on May 24, during a trip by Bush to Russia.

"When I sign the treaty with President Putin in Russia, it will begin the new era of U.S.-Russian relationships," Bush said today. "The new era will be a period of enhanced mutual security, economic security, and improved relations."

Mushroom cloud from weapons test at the U.S. Nevada Test Site, 1953 (Photo courtesy The High Energy Weapons Archive)

"Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements." Putin added.

The treaty will help President Bush fulfill one of his campaign pledges, to cut the nation's nuclear arsenal and modernize U.S. defensive strategies and systems. After taking office, Bush directed the Pentagon to review areas where nuclear weapons stockpiles could be reduced.

Since the end of the Cold War, both nations have been looking at ways to save money by cutting stockpiles, reducing arms storage and security needs. In 1997, the U.S. and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, known as the START treaty, that began a round of cuts in each country's nuclear arsenals.

The START II treaty, signed in 1997, required that each nation cut their stockpiles to between 3,000 and 3,500 strategic weapons by 2004. That same year, then U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed in principle on a third round of formal arms reductions that would have reduced those numbers to between 2,000 and 2,500.

The treaty announced today, which has not yet been named, will make even deeper cuts, leaving each country with between 1,700 and 2,200 nuclear weapons. Details of the treaty, such as which missile types will be reduced the most, have not yet been announced.

"This is good news for the American people today," Bush concluded. "It'll make the world more peaceful, and put behind us the Cold War once and for all."

The Bush administration's planned nuclear missile shield would use weapons like this LGM-30 Minuteman to seek out and destroy nuclear weapons launched at the U.S. by hostile nations or by terrorists. (U.S. Air Force photo)

And last week, some members of Congress were briefed on intelligence reports that suggest that Russia may be planning to resume nuclear testing.

The "New York Times" reported that selected House and Senate members met in closed door sessions with administration officials regarding an analysis by the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee. The analysis suggests that activities on the island of Novaya Zemlya, a Russian test range and research area above the Arctic Circle, may be preparations for nuclear tests.

Such tests would be a violation of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. has signed but not yet ratified. President Bush has said the pact would not protect the national security.

Russian scientists and political officials have said the work done at Novaya Zemlya aims to confirm the readiness and reliability of existing weapons, not to create new weapons. The U.S. performs similar research regularly at the Nevada Test Site.

A ship off the coast of Novaya Zemlya, one of Russia's nuclear research and testing sites. (Photo by Thomas Nilsen, courtesy Bellona)

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov again denied that Russia plans to resume nuclear testing on Novaya Zemlya.

In an interview aired Sunday on state controlled ORT television, Ivanov responded to concerns raised by the "New York Times" article and U.S. Congress members, stating, "Unfortunately such statements often emerge from Congress for no reason at all."

"Russia is demanding that the U.S. administration clarify the reason for such declarations, if we are to have new strategic relations based on mutual trust and respect," Ivanov added.