Strategic Panorama 2009 - 2010 - IEEE

Vicente Garrido Rebolledo
task that Obama sat beneath the Russian flag and Medvedev beneath that
of the US (51).
The Russian side stressed the presidents’ promise to have the text of
the new treaty ready «in the visible future, within a short time», but they
have refused to set specific deadlines, recalling that the START Treaty of
1991 had taken two years to draft. «Our positions are close, and the negotiated
matters, finalised. There are technical details that need finalising.
I hope we can do so in a short time», pointed out Sergei Prikhodko, the
Kremlin’s advisor in the negotiations. On 21 December 2009 the Russian
foreign ministry confirmed that Russia and the US had practically completed
the drafting of the new treaty. «To finalise the last details of the
agreement and present it to the Russian and US presidents for signature,
several problems need to be sorted out… Negotiations will continue in
January 2010», stated an official document (52).
A substantial reduction in both states’ nuclear arsenals has thus been
agreed on, but the broad range of possibilities, particularly with respect to
the number of delivery vehicles, shows that there is still a noticeable gap
between the intentions of each party. The US government wishes to focus
on curtailing the nuclear warheads currently ready to be fired. Russia is
insisting on a bigger cut in the number of vehicles, as it considers that the
US has a greater capacity to store warheads that would not contravene
the agreement, and to subsequently assemble them if required. The main
discussion point is precisely the number of delivery vehicles, as the US is
not prepared to reduce them to 500, as Russia wants. In addition, when
it comes to making counts of nuclear loads, Moscow wants them to be
counted according to the maximum number of warheads each missile
can carry, even if at the time it has only one warhead. Moscow fears that
the nuclear loads disassembled and stored by Washington may again be
rapidly deployed in the event of an outburst of tension between the two
powers (53).
(51) «Moscú y Washington cerrarán en 2010 el nuevo tratado de desarme nuclear»,
Agencia EFE, 19 December 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/
ALeqM5hT1Su2cGyj_g1KZUBmTx0uqFO_2w.
(52) «Cancillería rusa confirma que la preparación del nuevo Tratado START está prácticamente
concluida», RIA Novosti, Moscow, 21 December 2009, http://sp.rian.ru/onlinenews/20091221/124440269.html.
(53) For the contents of and developments in the negotiations for the new treaty see the
report drafted for the members of US Congress, which is periodically updated, WOOLF,
Amy F., Strategic Arms Control After START: Issues and Options, CRS Report for
Congress, Congressional Research Service, R40084, 9 October 2009, http://www.fas.
org/sgp/crs/nuke/R40084.pdf.
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