DYB2011-Part-II-web

Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
On 1 March, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, discussed his
country’s position 23 on the next steps related to nuclear disarmament and “cuts
[in] tactical nuclear weapons”. Towards the goals of reaching “global zero”
and reducing non-strategic nuclear weapons, he stated that the key principle
was the “indivisibility of security”. In addition, he added that “there is a clear
need to take into account the factors that negatively affect strategic stability,
such as plans to place weapons in outer space, to develop non-nuclear armed
strategic offensive weapons, as well as unilateral deployment of a global
ballistic missile defence system”. He further stated that “the considerable
imbalances in conventional arms” must also be addressed, particularly as
this matter relates to regions of conflict. Specifically regarding non-strategic
nuclear weapons, he affirmed that “[w]ithdrawal of these weapons to
the territory of the State to which they belong as well as removal of the
infrastructure for their deployment abroad should be regarded as a first step
towards the resolution of this problem”.
Missile defence
The United States continued its efforts to develop ballistic missile
defence (BMD) in Europe, under its European Phased Adaptive Approach
plan and as a national contribution to the NATO missile defence architecture.
The stated purpose of the plan is to protect against ballistic missiles launched
from the Middle East towards the United States or Europe.
As part of the first phase of its plan, in March, the United States
announced the deployment to the Mediterranean of the Aegis BMD-capable
USS Monterey, a guided-missile cruiser. In April, Poland ratified an agreement
to host the second site of land-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) BMD
interceptors, to be deployed in 2018. In May, Romania and the United States
announced an agreement on the location of the first site for land-based SM-3
interceptors, to be deployed in 2015. In September, Turkey agreed to host a
transportable X-band, high-resolution, phased-array (AN/TPY-2) radar as part
of plans to deploy a total of 18 such systems to support BMD in Europe.
The Russian Federation remained concerned about the plans to place
anti-missile interceptors in Europe. Pursuant to the decision taken in
November 2010, the NATO-Russia Council met three times during the year
to discuss missile defence, as it continued unsuccessful efforts to explore
opportunities for joint missile defence cooperation. The ongoing dispute
threatened to undermine recent progress towards the reduction of strategic
offensive nuclear forces and to complicate efforts to achieve further cuts in all
23 See Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canada, “Statement by Mr. Sergey Lavrov,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the Plenary meeting of the
Conference on Disarmament”, 3 March 2011. Available from http://www.rusembassy.ca/
ru/node/538 (accessed 21 May 2012).
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