Russian and US negotiators are scheduled to meet in Geneva today for a second round of talks on renewing a key Cold War-era arms reduction deal, a month before their leaders hold a landmark summit.
Diplomats said the three day meeting on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) treaty would be held behind closed doors at an undisclosed location, mirroring the discretion surrounding the first round in Moscow nearly two weeks ago.
“On the details of the negotiation, I think we prefer to keep that in private right now. I think that’s just the best way to conduct these kinds of negotiations,” US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.
First results from the talks are expected to be unveiled by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during their summit meeting in Moscow from July 6 through July 8, a Russian diplomat said.
Despite a thaw in US-Russian relations following the departure of the Bush administration, analysts were expecting little concrete progress on the 1991 START, which expires on Dec. 5.
On top of the complex technical issues surrounding the landmark treaty — which took a decade to reach agreement on the deep cuts in US and Soviet nuclear arsenals after the fall of the Iron Curtain — the negotiations are also hampered by differing ambitions.
“The sides are not in the same position. Obama needs a result to demonstrate that the ‘reset’ of US-Russian relations is getting somewhere,” said Evgeny Volk at the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Earlier this year, US Vice President Joseph Biden unveiled the Obama administration’s fresh approach to fractious US relations with the old Cold War foe, saying it wanted to press the “reset” button.
Disarmament expert Jozef Goldblat said the START talks allowed the US to create a climate “propitious for help with other more complicated subjects” where Washington needs Moscow’s support, such as Iran and North Korea’s controversial nuclear programs.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has not concealed Moscow’s desire to broaden the talks to take account of the planned US anti-missile shield in Europe.
The US insists that the defensive shield is meant to counter an Iranian threat.
But Russia regards the shield, which would partly be based in former eastern bloc countries close to its borders, as a threat to its own security.
“The number one stumbling block is the anti missile shield,” Volk said. “Moscow wants Washington to give up deployment but the Americans are against that.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was