Sec. Clinton: Senate Must Act on New START, National Security at Stake

Today's top nuclear policy stories, with excerpts in bullet form.

Stories we're following today: Thursday, August 12, 2010:

New START Treaty Ratification - Hillary Clinton at The State Department [link]

• Last week, I was pleased to meet with Chairman John Kerry to discuss the committee’s schedule for consideration of the treaty on September 15th or 16th and in the full Senate soon after. The Chairman and Ranking Member Senator Lugar have constructed a good plan, and I am confident about the prospects for ratification.
• This treaty is another step in the process of bilateral nuclear reductions initiated by President Reagan and supported overwhelmingly by both Republican and Democratic presidents and congresses alike. In every instance, the Senate has ratified such treaties with overwhelming bipartisan support.
• But when the Senate returns, they must act, because our national security is at risk.
• There is an urgency to ratify this treaty because we currently lack verification measures with Russia which only hurts our national security interests.

Clinton Presses Senate to Ratify Nuclear Arms Treaty with Russia - CBS News [link]

• In a statement read to journalists at the State Department, Clinton urged her former colleagues to act favorably on "New START."
• Clinton said once "new START" is ratified, it "will advance our national security and provide stability and predictability between the world's two leading nuclear powers."
• While saying she was "confident" about ratification, Clinton also was emphatic about the Senate's need to act: "When the Senate returns [from summer recess], they must act, because our national security is at stake."
• "Opposing ratification means opposing the inspections that provide us a vital window into Russia's arsenal," Clinton said.
• So far, Indiana's Richard Lugar is the only Republican publicly committed to support ratification. That means the administration needs to hold all 59 Democrats and independents and find at least another half a dozen Republicans before "new START" is ratified. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee takes up the issue in mid-September.

Remarks on New START Treaty to STRATCOM Deterrence Symposium - Senator Ben Nelson [link]

• If done right, arms control agreements can enhance U.S. national security by promoting transparency and information-sharing that can inform us about the size, make-up, and operations of other military forces.
• In recent months, I’ve spoken about the New START treaty with key current military leaders including Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, General Cartwright, and General Chilton. Each has expressed full support and participation in this treaty.
• Because it promotes our national security and can make the world safer; Because it increases transparency between nuclear nations and continues the maxim “trust but verify” coined by President Reagan; because it promotes cooperation and not suspicion; and because it reduces the possibility of a nuclear exchange and still enables America to respond to the terrible threats that continue in the Nuclear Age, I am prepared to vote to ratify the New START treaty.
• Without this treaty, our understanding of Russian nuclear forces would deteriorate. We’d have a tendency for U.S forces to overcompensate for what we don’t know. That’s a losing strategy in an era of large budget deficits and needed fiscal constraint.

Senate Delays Put National Security at Risk - Joseph Cirincione in The Hill's Congress blog [link]

• This morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took to the podium with one message: “Our national security is at risk.” The Senate, she said, cannot afford to delay on New START any longer.
• What prompted Secretary Clinton’s passionate warning? Deep concern that partisan politics and parochialism will trump national security interests in an election year.
• Secretary Clinton is watching the clock. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to vote on the treaty in the first week after recess, either September 15 or 16.
• Any delay in this vote would kill chances that the treaty could be approved by the full Senate before the end of session on October 8. That means US inspectors could not return to Russia for months.
• Next month we will find out if senators heed the counsel offered today and put national security ahead of politics and pork.
  
  

Is the Obama Administration Undermining its Own Nuclear Proliferation Policy? - Foreign Policy's Shadow Government blog [link]

• Last week, the Wall Street Journal sounded an alarm over a nuclear energy cooperation agreement being negotiated between the United States and Vietnam. According to the WSJ, the Obama administration is backing away from requiring that Vietnam forego any capability to enrich uranium -- a process that can be used to make reactor fuel or nuclear weapons.
• Such a requirement is central to a similar agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was widely praised as a model for future cooperation as nuclear energy becomes more widespread.
• Why would the Obama administration, which boasts a deep commitment to preventing nuclear weapons proliferation, suddenly undermine this key policy?
• Unfortunately, the Obama administration offers a weak defense of its apparent about face, "We will take different approaches region by region and country by country." Worse, the argument seems to confirm charges by the Non-Aligned Movement that U.S. nonproliferation policy is discriminatory and riddled with double standards.

A View from Outside the Beltway

START Talking - Tom Friedenbach in the Press & Dakotan [link]

• Fortunately, U.S. diplomats negotiated a replacement agreement of START I in New START, which reduces the nuclear arsenals on both sides to 1,550 deployed warheads. It currently awaits ratification from the Senate.
• Sen. Thune currently opposes this ratification due to minor issues of language. Failure to ratify this treaty would leave international arms control in a state of limbo for the foreseeable future and threaten both nations’ security.
• The treaty itself has a built in negotiation structure capable of resolving many of the senator’s concerns without endangering strategic stability.
• For this reason, I encourage you to write Sen. Thune voicing your support for START. For more information on START or Sen. Thune’s position on this issue, please see my website: SDforSTART.org.