Trump Sends Negotiators to Geneva for Nuclear Talks With Russians and Also Seeks to Limit Chinese Warheads
Peter Baker | New York Times
President Trump is sending a high-level delegation to meet with Russian counterparts in Geneva this week to pursue an arms control treaty that for the first time would cap the nuclear arsenals of not just the two largest powers, but China as well. Mr. Trump broached the idea with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during their meeting in Osaka, Japan, last month and has also signaled his ambition for such a three-way accord to President Xi Jinping of China, administration officials said on Monday. Russia has expressed interest; China has not. The meeting comes at a fraught moment in the history of arms control between Washington and Moscow. Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, or I.N.F., on the grounds of Russian violations takes effect next month over Mr. Putin’s objections. Mr. Trump’s team has also signaled that it is not interested in renewing the New Start treaty of 2010 that expires in 19 months despite Russia’s entreaties to keep it.
North Korea Hints It May Resume Nuclear Testing, Accuses U.S. of Reneging on Pact
Min Joo Kim | Washington Post
North Korea warned Tuesday that planned military exercises involving U.S. and South Korean forces would jeopardize proposed disarmament talks with Washington, and hinted it might respond by resuming nuclear and missile tests. In a statement, the North’s Foreign Ministry accused the United States of violating the spirit of negotiations between President Trump and dictator Kim Jong Un by proceeding with military maneuvers scheduled for next month. At their first meeting in Singapore last year, Trump said he was “stopping” major exercises with South Korea to avoid provoking Pyongyang. The North said its moratorium on nuclear and missile tests was a commitment it made in return to improve bilateral relations, “not a legal document inscribed on paper.” “With the U.S. unilaterally reneging on its commitments, we are gradually losing our justification to follow through on the commitments we made with the U.S.,” it said.
Russia Says U.S. Military Lied About Its Missiles and Plans to Put New Ones Near Border
Tom O’Connor | Newsweek
A senior Russian general accused the U.S. military of deceiving Moscow about the intentions of missile positions across tense borders in Eastern Europe and of possibly planning to deploy new longer-range weapons in the region. Major General Andrei Sterlin, head of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian military’s general staff, told Moscow's lower house of parliament Thursday that the U.S. may have accelerated preparations to place medium or intermediate-range missiles in Romania after both countries suspended their commitments to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The deal banned land-based weapons ranging between 310 and 3,420 miles. “It is possible that the Pentagon has decided to step up facilities preparations without waiting for legal procedures concerning the INF Treaty to complete,” Sterlin said, arguing that Washington has rebuffed Moscow's attempts to resolve their dispute, the state-run Tass Russian News Agency reported.
Location of U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe Accidentally Revealed in Report from NATO Body
Adam Taylor | Washington Post
A recently released — and subsequently deleted — document published by a NATO-affiliated body has sparked headlines in Europe with an apparent confirmation of a long-held open secret: U.S. nuclear weapons are being stored in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. A version of the document, titled “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernisation, arms control and allied nuclear forces,” was published in April. Written by a Canadian senator for the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the report assessed the future of the organization’s nuclear deterrence policy.But what would make news months later is a passing reference that appeared to reveal the location of roughly 150 U.S. nuclear weapons being stored in Europe.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Says Talks on Ballistic Missiles with U.S. Possible
Jon Gambrell | USA Today
Iran’s foreign minister has suggested for the first time that the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile program could be up for negotiations with the U.S., a possible opening for talks as tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington over the collapsing nuclear deal. Mohammad Javad Zarif offered an initially high price for such negotiations – the halt of American arms sales to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two key U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. But the fact that he mentioned it at all potentially represents a change in policy. The country’s ballistic missile program remains under control of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Kazakhstan – Once More a Testing Ground?
Ulrich Kuhn | Valdai Club
Being a staunch supporter of international nuclear disarmament efforts since many years, a very recent and little noticed decision by the Kazakh parliament to approve the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons could test the seriousness of nuclear disarmament supporters. Kazakhstan’s history is closely linked to Moscow’s nuclear weapons program. During the Cold War, Soviet leaders ordered excessive nuclear testing in the vast steppes of what later became the modern Kazakh state. Between 1949 and 1989, the Soviet military conducted no less than 456 air and underground nuclear weapons tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Radiation exposure led to massive suffering of the local population and caused long-term Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to support international nuclear disarmament efforts ever since Kazakhstan declared independence in 1991. Together with the other four Central Asian states, Kazakhstan was critical in pushing for the establishment of a Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, which materialized in 2009. As a result, Central Asian states undertake not to research, develop, manufacture, stockpile, acquire, possess, or have any control over any nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device. When 122 countries voted in favor of a new global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017 at the United Nations in New York, Kazakhstan was amongst the supporters. Two years on, the Central Asian state is now becoming the 25th country to approve the TPNW, which enters into force once 50 states have deposited their instruments of ratification with the United Nations.