U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev discuss an update to the 1991 START I treaty and other key issues on the first day of Obama's visit to Moscow. (Photo: AP/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
A July 6, 2009 meeting between American and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow has paved the way for an update and follow-up to the 1991 START I agreement on strategic weapons, which is due to expire on December 5, 2009.
The two-day visit to Russia is part of Obama's strategy to improve the strained relationship between the two countries, and both leaders expressed optimism that their countries can cooperate friendlier terms than in the recent past. Russia has often come under fire from Western analysts, human rights groups, and other observers for backsliding on democracy during the eight-year presidency of Vladimir Putin, who is now Prime Minister but still considered by critics to be the one who makes the final call.
It has been difficult at best for the White House and the Kremlin to agree on common policy, with issues and sticking points on each side making reconciliation tougher. Russia has had a tendency to back anti-U.S. authoritarian regimes such as that of leftist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and, recently, the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran. The Russian government echoed the accusations of Iranian clerical leaders and Ahmadinejad that the Americans were simply prying in the internal affairs of other countries and seeking to destabilize the established order.
Nevertheless, the two presidents managed to hammer out a sort of preliminary agreement to replace the expiring START I treaty. The U.S. and Russia are to limit their strategic warheads to a range of 1,500 and 1,675 and strategic delivery vehicles are to be reduced to a range of 500 to 1,100; under START I these limits were 2,200 and 1,600, respectively. The new treaty would be legally-binding for a ten-year period; both sides have seven years to reach the prescribed limits on their strategic weapons arsenals, the last three years to be spent verifying progress and compliance.
Russia also wants to link the agreement to the issue of the U.S. missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland, both once part of the Warsaw Pact dominated by Moscow during Soviet times. Both Medvedev and his predecessor Putin vocally opposed the move as a blatant attempt to encircle and constrict Russia, despite assurances from the U.S. that the facilities are intended to track and stop missiles from hostile countries like Iran. It is not yet clear whether the negotiations may falter over this issue, but White House officials are confident that Medvedev's words of goodwill are solid and Russia will not walk away from the negotiating table.
Afghanistan was another matter discussed at the Moscow summit, and Russia will permit movement of American arms and military personnel through its territory, which would save the United States an estimated $133 million a year. Medvedev and Obama also agreed to shore up the fledgling Afghan national police and armed forces and begin training counternarcotics personnel to wean the war-torn country off the drug trade. The joint statement on Afghanistan also endorsed international support for the upcoming presidential election in Afghanistan and pledged to help the Afghan and Pakistani governments combat terrorism, extremism, and drug trafficking that has increasingly destabilized both countries in recent months.
Military cooperation is also expected to resume between the U.S. and Russia, after being suspended when Russia invaded Georgia in August 2008 after pro-Western Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops to try and force the separatist reigon of South Ossetia to surrender and submit to central authority in Tbilisi. Russia then also recognized the independence of both South Ossetia and another breakaway region in northwestern Georgia, Abkhazia, after years of tacit support for the separatists.
Obama shows no intentions to recognize or support the South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatists, while Putin has vociferously opposed Georgian ambitions to join NATO. The confrontation over Georgia's status and future is expected to be a key discussion point for Obama's meeting with the Russian Prime Minister on July 7. Still ahead for Obama is an appearance in front of graduates of Moscow's New Economic School as well as conferences with opposition leaders who complain of reduced freedoms and increased government pressure still lingering from Putin's presidency.
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