MOSCOW (voa) – Russia has reacted sharply to U.S. plans to store rather destroy some nuclear warheads as part of a planned 10-year reduction of strategic forces.
A statement issued by Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko in Moscow Thursday says Russia believes Russian-American agreements on further cuts in nuclear arsenals must be radical, verifiable and irreversible. Mr. Yakovenko adds “that means strategic nuclear weapons must be cut not only on paper.”
Russia and the United States have pledged to reduce the size of their strategic nuclear arsenals – now at between 6,000 and 7,000 warheads each -to a number between 1,500 and 2,200.
On Wednesday, Assistant Defense Secretary J.D. Crouch said President Bush’s new arms reduction policy calls for an unspecified number of weapons to be rendered inactive and held in reserve instead of being destroyed. He said this means it would take several months to get the inactive warheads ready to fire. Some of the warheads would be destroyed, he said, but it has not yet been decided how many or when. The issue of whether to destroy or store warheads removed from missiles was a major point discussed at a summit in November between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. and Russian diplomats are scheduled to meet in Washington next week to discuss the details and timetable for the arms cuts in preparation for President Bush’s trip to Russia later this year. The promise to reduce nuclear arsenals was made in connection with the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
