MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign minister has signaled Moscow’s readiness for compromise on a new nuclear arms control agreement with the United States and said he hopes for a deal by year’s end, news reports said today.
Sergey Lavrov praised President Barack Obama’s administration for taking a constructive stance in talks with Russia, adding that diplomats from both nations are now working on detailed platforms on arms control, Russian news agencies reported.
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the issue when they meet in Moscow on July 6-8 and give directives on how to proceed, Lavrov said.
He said preliminary contacts have shown that “there is a good chance to bring our positions closer and reach agreements.” He added, “The U.S. approach seems very constructive to me.”
Lavrov spoke to Russian reporters after returning from a visit to the United States where he held talks with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama and Medvedev agreed during their meeting in London last month to fast-track negotiations on an agreement to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires in December.
“We hope that by the year’s end we will be able to negotiate a mutually acceptable text of a new treaty, although we are pressed by time,” Lavrov said.
He said Russia would like a new deal to count all nuclear warheads, including those in storage. But he signaled that there is a room for compromise, adding that Moscow is ready to listen to the U.S. arguments to the contrary.
“We aren’t saying a categorical ‘no’ to the position taken by the Americans,” Lavrov said. “It’s key to have such an agreement that would encompass all warheads and all their delivery means. As for warheads kept at depots, it’s important to understand if and how exactly they will be accounted for.”
He added that Russia is expecting specific U.S. proposals on the issue and will analyze them “based primarily on the criterion of equal security.”
START I, signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush, called for each country to cut its nuclear warheads by at least one-quarter, to about 6,000.
A second deal — the so-called Treaty of Moscow — was signed in 2002 and called for cutting each country’s nuclear arsenal further, to 1,700-2,200 warheads by 2012. The document was closely based on START I rules and verification procedures.
The 2002 pact only counted the so-called “operationally deployed warheads,” or those attached to missiles.
Russia has criticized that provision, saying it could allow parties to quickly boost their arsenals by moving extra warheads from stockpiles.
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