The US and Russia yesterday began the first round of talks aimed at replacing a landmark Cold War-era nuclear disarmament treaty that expires in December. The talks on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) are a central part of US President Barack Obama’s desire to “reset” strained ties with Russia and their result could have far-reaching implications for global security.
They hark back to Cold War days where US and Soviet officials met for tense negotiations on reducing their vast atomic arsenals and lowering the chances of nuclear Armageddon. A successful result would boost Obama’s vision of a world free of atomic weapons and help set the stage for a fence-mending summit in July when Obama travels to Moscow to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. For Russia, the talks are also a matter of prestige as they imply strategic “parity” with the US, a matter diplomats say is of huge importance to Moscow as it seeks to play a larger role on the world stage.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed a “new momentum for disarmament” and offered his best wishes for the talks. “Let me extend my best wishes for the negotiations between the two countries taking place in Moscow,” the UN chief told a disarmament conference in Geneva.
A source in the Russian foreign ministry said that the talks began yesterday as planned, without giving further details. Interfax news agency said the two sides had decided to refrain from public comment on the talks.
The two-day negotiating session marks the formal start of the process though the two sides have a series of preliminary meetings to help break the ice. Ahead of the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he hoped they would be “fruitful” but also cautioned that they would be linked to controversial US missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.
“We believe that the START treaty cannot be discussed in a vacuum,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax late on Monday.
“It must reflect the issue of global security, which certainly includes Russia’s, and this implies that we must sort out the situation on missile defense,” Lavrov added.
Moscow has reacted angrily to US plans to place missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Washington however says the plans do not threaten Russia and has tried to keep them off the negotiating table at the START talks. The Russian daily newspaper Vremya Novostei wrote yesterday that it would be “practically impossible” to reach a deal on START unless Obama reconsidered the missile shield that was strongly backed by former US president George W. Bush.
Even aside from the missile defense issue, negotiators face a tough task as they seek to find a successor agreement to START, a hugely complex treaty with numerous arcane technical details, before it expires on Dec. 5.
Talks on a START replacement made little progress under Bush, and despite the warming in ties under Obama, many of the same stumbling blocks remain. For instance, Moscow wants a broad treaty that limits both nuclear warheads and their carriers, such as missiles and bombers, while Washington prefers to focus only on “operationally deployed” warheads that are ready for launch.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
RSS