Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
7/17/2015
Despite the end of U.S.-Russian Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) activities, nuclear security cooperation between the two countries remains strong and arms control initiatives must be jointly undertaken to be effective, Department of State officials said this week. The U.S.-Russian relationship framed several nuclear security discussions at the agency’s Generation Prague Conference, where officials discussed the deterioration of trust between the two nations and called for collaborative nonproliferation activities.
"The U.S. and Russia continue to cooperate in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism," according to Thomas Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation. Countryman said this "is one of the areas in which, despite the tension over Ukraine, U.S.-Russian cooperation remains very strong." He acknowledged, though, that previous engagement through the Nunn-Lugar CTR program, particularly in securing fissile material in Russia, "is not as strong as it was." Those activities, established upon the breakup of the Soviet Union to help Russia maintain the security of its nuclear weapons stockpile and fissile materials, "did more than anything else to reduce the chances of theft of fissile material," he said. Countryman added that although he believes "the Russians understand full well the importance of this," the U.S.-Russia relationship currently lacks transparency due to low confidence in verification and compliance.
Ambassador Adam Scheinman, Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation at the State Department, called attention to the stalling of arms control efforts over the last several years. Earlier this year, for example, Russia announced its withdrawal from the CTR program that had been in place since 1991. Commenting on the need for renewed Russian engagement in future arms control efforts, Scheinman said, “We’re only going to find our way to walk down this ladder if we do it together through negotiation.” He said that while “unfortunately we don’t have a partner currently with respect to Russia,” the United States should work to “bring Russia back to the negotiating table on arms control.”
Rose Gottemoeller, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, noted that the United States and Russia are both “faithfully implementing the New START treaty,” which places caps on strategic arms such as intercontinental ballistic missiles and allows 18 yearly on-site inspections for verification. “At a time when trust has been very difficult . . . the [treaty] allows us to continue to have some mutual confidence,” Gottemoeller said. She added that progress toward “strategic stability” between the two nations ultimately “requires a willing partner and a conducive strategic environment.”
