Russia ready to freeze total number of warheads for one year to extend nuclear pact with U.S.
By Isabelle Khurshudyan,
Ronald Zak AP
MOSCOW — Russia would be ready to freeze its total number of nuclear warheads for one year, it said Tuesday, if the United States agreed to do the same, resurrecting hopes that the two countries could agree to extend a key arms reduction pact by the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
A warhead freeze was a condition demanded by the Trump administration, which on Friday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer of a one-year extension to New START, a 10-year treaty that places limits on the two countries’ nuclear warheads.
Putin’s proposal Friday made no mention of a mutual freeze on the countries’ nuclear stockpiles, suggesting instead a simple one-year extension of the treaty with no conditions while Moscow and Washington negotiate what comes next.
National security adviser Robert C. O’Brien responded in a statement that the offer was a “non-starter,” adding: “We hope that Russia will reevaluate its position before a costly arms race ensues.”
[Trump administration rejects Putin’s offer on nuclear arms deal extension]
Moscow seemingly acquiesced on Tuesday. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country “proposes extending New START for one year, and at the same time, it stands ready, together with the U.S., to assume a political obligation on freezing a number of the nuclear warheads possessed by the parties for this period.”
“This item can be put into effect strictly and exclusively with the understanding that the freezing of warheads would not involve any extra requirements on the part of the U.S.,” the statement continued.,It added that if Washington agrees, then “the time bought by extending New START can be used for conducting comprehensive bilateral negotiations on future control over nuclear missile weapons.”
Russia’s new position could lead to a foreign policy victory for President Trump, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in national polling.
The 2010 treaty, which expires in February, restricts the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and certain launch platforms. If the treaty is not extended or replaced, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers will return to an era without substantive restraints on their arsenals for the first time in decades. (START is an acronym for Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.)
[U.S. scrambles to do nuclear deal with Russia before election, issuing ultimatum]
The treaty includes a clause that allows the leaders of both nations to extend the agreement by five years without requiring ratification. Both Putin and Biden have said they would agree to the five-year extension. In an interview with state television earlier this month, Putin said Biden’ s willingness to prolong New START “is a serious signal for our possible future interaction.”
The Trump administration’s arms-control envoy, Marshall Billingslea, initially insisted that China participate in talks. He wanted any replacement treaty to include China and to encompass all of Russia’s nuclear weapons — not just the “strategic” weapons covered under New START but also its sizable stockpile of smaller, “tactical” nuclear weapons that fall outside the treaty. Billingslea also insisted that verification mechanisms for any follow-on treaty be strengthened.
Russia rejected the demands, and China has refused to take part in negotiations.
Trump then dispatched O’Brien to meet with his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, early this month in Geneva.
After that meeting and the calls between Trump and Putin, the Trump administration thought an agreement in principle had been reached. Speaking last week at the Heritage Foundation, Billingslea said he hoped that the “gentleman’s agreement” would “percolate down through their system so that my counterpart hopefully will be authorized to negotiate.”
“We’re ready to strike this deal. We could strike it tomorrow, in fact,” Billingslea said. “But Moscow is going to have to show the political will to do so as well.”
John Hudson and Paul Sonne in Washington contributed to this report.
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