The United States and Russia may have vastly different policies on money-laundering abatement, trade tariff reform, the conduct of the global war on terror, and military support to the Republic of Georgia, but — according to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — the two countries are in complete agreement that they must reduce their nuclear arsenals and clear the way to a better relationship.

Rumsfeld, speaking last week before the Senate Arms Services Committee, said the two world powers are now basing their relationship on cooperation rather than fear of mutual annihilation. The purpose of the Defense Secretary’s appearance on Capitol Hill was to discuss the national security implications of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, an accord signed last May in Moscow by President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Bush is seeking Senate ratification of the treaty.

Bush and Putin announced their intentions to reduce their operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads by nearly two-thirds, lowering stockpiles to between 1,700 and 2,200 weapons. Both nations currently have about 6,000 warheads. The reductions reflect the new relationship between the two nations, Rumsfeld said.

“Russia and the US entered into this new century saddled with two legacies from the Cold War — the adversarial relationship to which we had both grown accustomed and the physical manifestation of that adversarial relationship, the massive arsenals that we had built up,” Rumsfeld said. “In the past year, we’ve made progress in dealing with both.”

Rumsfeld pointed out that the treaty was reached without the prolonged negotiations of previous arms control agreements.

“This is the START treaty,” the Defense Secretary said, holding up a thick notebook. “It is enormous. The first President Bush and the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed it in 1991. It is 700 pages long, and it took nine years to negotiate.

“This is the Moscow Treaty that was concluded by President Bush and President Putin,” he said, holding up a document. “It’s three pages long, and it took five or six months to negotiate.”

The Moscow Treaty is just one element of the growing relationship between the two countries that involves “not just security, but also increasing political, economic, diplomatic, cultural and other forms of cooperation,” the secretary said.

The United States now approaches Russia as a friendly power, not an adversary, he noted. “With the recently completed Nuclear Posture Review, the United States is no longer interested in preserving a balance of terror with Russia,” Rumsfeld added.

US officials are now working to transform America’s nuclear posture from one aimed at deterring the Soviet Union to one designed to deter adversaries that may not be discouraged by the threat of nuclear retaliation. “We would have made these cuts regardless of what Russia did with its arsenal,” Rumsfeld said.

“We’re making them not because we signed the treaty,” he explained, “but because the transformation in our relationship with Russia means that we do not need as many deployed weapons as we once needed.

Russia has made a similar calculation, and the agreement we reached in Moscow is the result of those determinations, not the cause of them.”

America’s means of deterrence must change as the nation’s adversaries change, Rumsfeld stressed. The massive US nuclear arsenal, he noted as an example, did not deter the terrorists who aimed hijacked airliners at American targets last Sept. 11.

US officials decided to proceed with the cuts in order to invest in other critical areas that defense officials included in the 2003 budget request. They include investments in improved US intelligence collection, analysis, processing and dissemination; a refocused, revitalized missile defense research and testing program; and capabilities to detect and respond to biological attack.

US officials also aim to speed development of unmanned aerial vehicles; produce fast, precision-strike capabilities; and convert four Trident nuclear ballistic missile submarines into stealthy cruise missile and special operations platforms. The budget also includes programs to leverage information technology to seamlessly connect US forces in the air, at sea and on land; protect information networks; improve the survivability of US space systems; and develop a space infrastructure that assures persistent surveillance and access.

Rumsfeld said investments in these and other transformational capabilities in the 2003 budget should allow the United States over time to reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons and to enact the deep nuclear reductions contained in the Moscow Treaty.

Send questions and comment to: [email protected]

1 August 2002