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.”
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
The Philippines deferred the awarding of a project that is part of a plan to build one of the world’s longest marine bridges after local opposition over the potential involvement of a Chinese company due to national security fears. The proposals are “undergoing thorough review” by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a lender and an overseer of the project to ensure it meets international environmental and governance standards, the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways said in a statement on Monday in response to queries from Bloomberg. The agency said it would announce the winning bidder once ADB
RSS