US, Russia Confirm Compliance With START I Nuclear Cuts

SPACEWAR

US-Russian START I Treaty Cuts Warheads To Under 6,000 Each

File photo: the remains of a missile silo in Ukrainia that was one of the many sites destroyed under Start-1 during the late 90s. DoD photo.

Washington (AFP) Dec 5, 2001
The United States and Russia said Wednesday they had fulfilled all of their obligations under the START I strategic arms reduction treaty in which they had pledged to reduce their nuclear arsenals.

"The treaty's final ceilings came into effect today, and they have been met," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a statement. "Today we mark an important milestone in dismantling the legacy of the Cold War."

Wednesday was the deadline for the completion of the third and final phase of reductions in strategic offensive arms required by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

START I, which was signed on July 31, 1991 and went into effect on December 5, 1994, gave the United States and the former Soviet Union up seven years to bring the number of nuclear warheads down to 6,000.

Russia took up the obligation after the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991.

Powell noted that when negotiations on the treaty began in 1983, the United States and the Soviet Union each had more than 10,000 deployed strategic warheads.

"Today, all the former Soviet states except the Russian Federation are free of nuclear weapons, and the United States and Russia have cut their arsenals nearly in half to a level of 6,000 deployed warheads each," he said.

In Moscow, foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said earlier that Russia had "totally fulfilled its obligations, having reduced its warheads to 5,518."

"We expect the United States to reach the level set out in the treaty," he said in a statement.

"The implementation of START I bodes well for further dramatic reductions which the Russian and US presidents have agreed" during a November summit between presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, it said.

Bush has proposed bringing the level of US nuclear warheads down to between 1,700 and 2,200 in the next 10 years while Putin has proposed a two-thirds cut, bringing the level of his country's arsenal down to 1,500 or less.

Powell noted that a "different era" in US-Russia relations had begun even though disagreements still exist about US plans for a national missile defense that would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty which Russia regards as the cornerstone of strategic stability.

"The Soviet Union is gone and the United States and Russia are no longer adversaries," Powell said.

"As we cooperate in building this new strategic relationship and as we move beyond the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, we will make further reductions in strategic nuclear forces," he said.

Powell added that the verification procedures used to determine compliance with the START I requirements would provide "transparency and confidence as we carry out these newly pledged reductions."

SPACEWAR

Mutual Inspection Of Compliance With Missile Destruction Treaty Winds Up

Almaty (Interfax) April 11, 2001
The United States, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine will end on May 31, 2001 the mutual inspection activities that have lasted for 13 years to check compliance with the treaty on elimination of medium and shorter range missiles.

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