U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap a missile defense network in Central Europe revealed a Cold War mind-set that impedes better relations, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations said.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said it was counterproductive to improved cooperation on nuclear issues for Defense Secretary Robert Gates and White House officials to say the decision wasn’t about Russia. They insisted that new intelligence and technology drove the move to abandon a planned system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
“It shows to us that the U.S. continues to be a rather difficult negotiating partner, a partner who is loaded in many wars by a Cold War mentality,” Churkin said Monday in an interview in New York. “By doing that they are undermining the value of the decision in our eyes.”
Obama said he hoped that the decision would make Russian leaders more willing to work with the United States to deal with threats including the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. The United States is pursuing diplomatic efforts to persuade both countries to abandon any nuclear development designed to create weaponry.
Churkin said the U.S. rationale was an “indication to me that this new era of cooperation is not going to be easy because the U.S., while they try to move ahead, still has these weights hanging on their feet,” Churkin said.
Obama said on Sept. 17 that he was scrapping the missile system proposal, championed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, in the face of Russian opposition. Instead, Obama favors a more flexible system better able to protect against threats to the United States and its European allies, primarily from Iran.
Meanwhile, a new round of Russian-U.S. arms control talks began this week, and Russian military experts predicted that they would not be easy, despite Obama’s decision to scrap the European missile system.
Russian and U.S. diplomats are trying to negotiate a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I, before it expires on Dec. 5. The agreement is seen as crucial for both nations to keep an eye on one another’s nuclear stockpiles and also add credibility to their efforts to persuade countries such as Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear programs.
As talks got under way in Geneva on Monday, Vladimir Dvorkin, the former head of a military think tank that developed Moscow’s strategy in arms-control talks, said Obama’s decision removed a major stumbling block but differences are yet to be resolved.
Moscow and Washington have been arguing about which weapons will be subject to cuts, what will be the rules for counting nuclear warheads and how intrusive inspections of military facilities could be, Dvorkin told a news conference in Moscow.
“Negotiations aren’t going easily,” said Viktor Yesin, the former chief of staff for the Strategic Missile Forces.
He told the news conference that Moscow wants an end to intrusive U.S. inspections at the main Russian missile factory in Votkinsk, in the Udmurtia republic, while the United States wanted to continue them.
“There are still many obstacles negotiators have to deal with,” Yesin said.
The latest round of talks on a successor to START were expected to continue until Oct. 2, U.S. officials said.
Even if the parties fail to reach agreement quickly enough for the deal to be ratified before START expires, they may begin observing terms of the new deal immediately, Dvorkin said. “Nothing horrible will happen if the deal isn’t ratified by Dec. 5,” he added.
Dvorkin said Obama’s move to scrap the missile shield has created favorable conditions for prospective Russian cooperation with the United States and NATO on joint missile defense.
“If we do that, it will be even more important than START,” he said, adding that cooperation on a missile shield would dramatically boost mutual trust.
The latest call for pooling efforts in missile defense came from NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen. On Friday, he urged the United States, Russia and NATO to consider linking their missile defense systems against potential new nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East.
The Foreign Ministry welcomed Rasmussen’s remarks but said in a statement this week that prospects for Russian-NATO cooperation on missile defense would depend on the U.S. administration’s new approach to missile defense in Europe.
(AP, Bloomberg)
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