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Posts Tagged ‘Nuclear weapons’

Nuclear arms reduction deal row

July 6th, 2009 | No Comments

• Nuclear arms cuts treaty hits familiar problem
• Medvedev expects US concessions before deal

Hopes of a new nuclear arms reduction deal between Moscow and Washington appeared to be in doubt today, after Russia said there could be no agreement unless the US was prepared to heed its concerns on missile defence.

Barack Obama flies into Moscow tomorrow for his first trip to Russia as US president. The summit’s centrepiece is supposed to be a groundbreaking agreement on nuclear arms reduction.

Obama and Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, agreed during their last meeting in April to hold talks on a successor treaty to the 1991 Start-1 pact, which expires in December. But attempts to reach a deal appear to have come unstuck over the same problem that defeated the Bush administration: the Kremlin’s unbending hostility to the Pentagon’s planned missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. While Obama has agreed to review the plan, he is not prepared to abandon it. Today Medvedev said that any new arms reduction treaty was definitively “linked” to the US’s missile defence ambitions in central Europe.

Medvedev said: “We consider these issues are interconnected. It is sufficient to show restraint and show an ability to compromise. And then we can agree on the basis of a new deal on Start.”

Medevedev’s comments place Obama in an uncomfortable position on the eve of one of the biggest foreign policy trips of his presidency. If he makes concessions he risks a political backlash at home and the charge of capitulation. If he doesn’t, he may emerge from the US-Russia summit no more successful than George Bush.

Today Russian officials revealed that they had not been able to reach agreement on a “framework document” setting out a blueprint for nuclear talks ‑ an ominous sign. Obama, however, made clear his determination to improve relations.

“I believe that Americans and Russians have many common interests, interests that our governments have not pursued as actively as we could have,” he told the Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

On Tuesday he will meet Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister and the man who most people believe still runs the country. Obama described Putin slightingly last week as having “one foot in the past”.

In his interview, Obama acknowledged “Russian sensitivities” over the shield, but said it was needed to protect the US and Europe from a nuclear-armed Iranian missile. He made clear he would not accept Moscow’s linkage between arms control and missile defence, a statement that suggest there is little prospect of a rapid breakthrough.

Today analysts said there were profound, irreconcilable differences between both sides, not just over the shield, but technical issues including counting, verification, and delivery systems.

“It requires a miracle to resolve these differences,” Sergey Rogov, director of the US and Canadian Institute in Moscow, said.

The US and Russia account for more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. They have agreed in principle to reduce their nuclear warheads below the 2,000 agreed in the Start treaty to 1,500-1,700 each. But they have not been able to agree on a reduction in delivery systems, which include intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles or heavy bombers.

According to Rogov, Russia wants to reduce the number of launchers to 600. The US is insisting on around 1,000. Additionally, Moscow is against the US having what it calls a “return potential”, which would allow nuclear weapons scrapped by the US to be redeployed in the event of a nuclear crisis. “I’m not sure Obama understands it,” Rogov said.

Writing last week in Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow defence analyst Pavel Felgenhaur predicted the summit would be a failure. He said the Russian government, emboldened by the recent oil price rise, expected the US to make “one-sided” concessions while making none itself.

During his two-and-a-half day trip to Moscow, Obama is expected to seek Russia’s co-operation on Iran, and support for a stronger sanctions regime against North Korea. Today, however, Medevev hailed Iran as a “major partner”.

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North Korea test-fires two missiles

July 2nd, 2009 | No Comments

Fears grow that latest launches could fuel tensions following nuclear test in May

North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles from its east coast today, South Korean media reported, as a US envoy was in Beijing to discuss new sanctions against the reclusive regime.

South Korean intelligence experts had anticipated tests, including of banned ballistic rockets, from two sites in early July. New missile launches could exacerbate tensions running high since Pyongyang’s 25 May underground nuclear test and a series of missile firings.

The UN security council adopted a tough sanctions resolution last month in response to the nuclear test. Philip Goldberg, a former US ambassador, who is in charge of co-ordinating the implementation of sanctions, was meeting representatives from the Chinese foreign ministry and other relevant ministries.

As China is Pyongyang’s closest ally and largest source of fuel and food aid, its co-operation is crucial in persuading North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks. The new UN resolution calls on UN members to request inspections of ships suspected of carrying prohibited cargo.

A North Korean ship came under intense scrutiny for more than a week by the US navy as it was detected heading toward Burma with suspicious cargo. On Sunday, the Kang Nam 1, the first vessel monitored under UN sanctions, turned around and headed back north. Pyongyang said that any interception of its ships would be considered a declaration of war.

China has sent its own envoy, vice foreign minister Wu Dawei, on an extended trip to Russia, the US, Japan and South Korea to talk about the Korean nuclear situation and how to restart the six-party disarmament talks.

“The purpose of Wu Dawei’s visit is to exchange views with relevant parties on the nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula and the situation in northeast Asia,” said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Separately, North and South Korea ended their latest talks over a troubled joint industrial project, apparently without progress, and failed to set a date for the next round of talks, South Korea’s unification ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said the two sides met for a little over one hour in the morning in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.

The countries have been at odds over the fate of a South Korean worker who has been detained in the north since March for allegedly denouncing its political system. The north has rejected Seoul’s repeated calls for the worker’s freedom. It has also demanded that South Korean companies sharply increase wages for North Korean workers and fees paid for the use of the land.

As relations with South Korea deteriorated, the north halted all key joint projects except for the South Korean-run complex at Kaesong, a prominent symbol of past attempts at reconciliation.

It is believed North Korea is highly likely to test-fire a barrage of missiles in coming days, a move that would aggravate the already high tensions following Pyongyang’s nuclear test and UN sanctions.

The north is expected to launch short or medium-range missiles, including banned ballistic rockets, from two sites on its east coast in early July, the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified intelligence source.

Last month, Pyongyang designated a no-sail zone off its east coast for military drills through to 10 July. Media reports have said the missile launches could come around 4 July, the US Independence Day. The north tested a long-range missile on that day in 2006.

Today’s reports say North Korea has test-fired two short-range missiles. Yonhap news agency reported that the north fired two ground-to-ship missiles from its east coast. The report gave no further details.

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff could not immediately confirm the report.

North Korea had earlier issued a no-sail zone in waters off its east coast through 10 July.

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Defence black hole ‘may finish Trident’

June 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Big projects must go to save billions, experts say

Defence projects worth billions of pounds, such as replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent, could have to be axed to help fill a “black hole” in the defence budget, senior military and political figures will warn tomorrow.

Overstretch of the armed forces must be ended, according to a report whose authors include the former Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson, ex-Marine Lord Ashdown and former chief of the defence staff Lord Guthrie.

They argue that Britain should no longer struggle to maintain a full range of defence capability like the US and instead consider scrapping up to £24bn of future “big ticket” projects – including two new aircraft carriers, the F35 joint strike fighters designed to fly from them, six new Type 45 destroyers, four new Astute hunter-killer submarines and the replacement of the Vanguard submarines carrying Trident.

The report from the National Security Commission, convened by the thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research, argues Britain still needs a nuclear deterrent but should seek cheaper alternative or patch up the Vanguards.

However, it makes clear that even if unjustifiable spending is axed the defence budget may still need more public money. It calls for boosting the armed forces from 98,000 to 120,000 personnel and the creation of a new stabilisation force to tackle situations like postwar Afghanistan and Iraq.

Yesterday Des Browne, who as Labour’s defence secretary pushed the Trident decision through parliament, welcomed the report, telling the Observer that while it was the right choice at the time to upgrade the system, possible alternatives were now emerging.

“I never, ever thought that the decision about Trident closed the debate down,” he said. He also confirmed claims of a black hole, adding: “There is an order book which outstrips the department’s capacity to pay for it – that’s no secret.”

The report is embarrassing for Gordon Brown, who yesterday marked Britain’s first Armed Forces Day at a ceremony in Kent. He has refused to discuss possible public spending cuts despite the recession and denied that overstretch hampers Britain’s defence capability.

But Guthrie insisted the human costs of underfunding were high: “My concern is that we have soldiers who are dying because of inadequate equipment.”

A spokesman for the MoD said its budget was in the longest period of sustained real growth for over two decades. “Of course, there are always things we could spend a bigger budget on, but our job is to manage within our allocation, recognising that the financial situation is now difficult right across the UK.” The nuclear deterrent was an investment “that as a nation we can and should afford”.

• Scottish secretary Jim Murphy yesterday hit out at “sickening” protests which disrupted an Armed Forces Day parade in Glasgow. Several people were arrested and one person was injured. The protesters, believed to have been an Irish republican group, began chanting during a service in George Square. Murphy said: “These people stand against every value the veterans we celebrated today fought – and died – for and they must know that the majority of Scotland has no time or patience for their vile views.”

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