Battlefield nukes left out of arms talks

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By Nicholas Kralev

The Obama administration handed Russia an early arms-control gift last week. It was much more meaningful than the symbolic "reset" button Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva last month, which was meant to mark a new start to the relationship after years of tension.

The gift was not material, but it satisfied a longtime Russian wish -- keeping so-called tactical nuclear weapons out of negotiations on arms reductions -- and Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington, was more than happy to receive it.

Mr. Kislyak was one of two speakers on a panel during the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's annual nonproliferation conference. The other speaker was Rose Gottemoeller, the new assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance. She will be the chief U.S. negotiator of a follow-on to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Moscow, which expires in December.

One of the issues brought up during the session had to do with tactical nuclear weapons, also known as nonstrategic bombs for possible battlefield use that do not require long-distance delivery vehicles, such as missiles, as do strategic weapons.

"My own view is that the immediate START follow-on negotiations will not be the area where that issue is immediately pursued," Ms. Gottemoeller said.

That comment visibly pleased Mr. Kislyak, who said that Washington and Moscow "have enough work to do now to focus on things that are doable, because when you go to substrategic [arms], there will be a lot of other things that need to be entered into the play."

Both officials attributed their intention to exclude tactical weapons from the upcoming post-START negotiations to the lack of sufficient time, given that the two countries want a new agreement to be concluded before the 1991 treaty's expiration.

"I certainly believe we should begin exploring the issues with the Russian Federation and decide how to fit that into the agenda," Ms. Gottemoeller said, adding that President Obama believes that "this is an area that should be" dealt with at some point.

Critics say, however, that Russia has much more to gain from delaying tactical-arms cuts because it has several thousand such weapons, while the U.S. only has several hundred.

"There is real danger in rushing to reduce U.S. nuclear strategic weapons, while at the same time thousands of Russian tactical nuclear weapons remain available for use against us and our allies that exceed the total remaining strategic U.S. arsenal," said Peter Huessy, president of GeoStrategic Analysis, a defense-consulting firm.