The Hindu : Bush confident of Senate nod for arms treaty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 15, 2002

International

International

Bush confident of Senate nod for arms treaty

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

New York MAY 14. The U.S. President, George W Bush, has received a mixed response to the announcement of a landmark treaty with Russia on further cutbacks in their nuclear arsenal.

While experts have questioned the "soundness" of the new treaty, which will be signed on May 24 in Moscow, the first reaction from key members of Congress, appears to be favourable. "Eliminating these weapons of mass destruction would make Americans more secure and the world a safer place. I salute President Bush for his leadership on this issue and his partnership with President Putin," said Joseph Biden, Democratic Senator and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The treaty has to be approved by the Senate by a two-thirds majority but the White House appears confident that it will get the go-ahead.

While responding positively to the pact, senior lawmakers like Mr. Biden also made it clear that important questions would be asked during the ratification process, including whether the reductions were irreversible, if they would take place without delay and if verification were possible.

Administration officials say that procedures have been laid out including on-site verifications.

The President's announcement on Monday "marks a step forward toward a safer world," said Richard Lugar, a Republican Senator and a long-time member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"If we are to protect ourselves from this incredibly dangerous period, we must create new non-proliferation partners and aggressively pursue any non-proliferation opportunities that appear," Mr. Lugar said.

Mr. Bush has said that the treaty will "liquidate the legacy of the Cold War".

The treaty calls on the United States and Russia to reduce their nuclear arsenals by two thirds by the year 2012.

From the roughly 6,000 warheads that each country has now, the numbers will be down to between 1,700 and 2,200. The Republican President has long been critical of the arms control negotiations process and the documents that have resulted.

This new treaty, however, is only three pages long and the negotiation process took only about six months, contrary to START-I and START-II which came about during the Cold War years after long-winding and cumbersome negotiations.

Arms control experts are critical of the new treaty saying it will allow for the "storage" of dismantled warheads instead of getting rid of them. The Russians wanted the warheads to be destroyed and not stored; Mr.Bush, keeping Capitol Hill in mind, wanted an informal arrangement, but Mr. Putin insisted on a formal treaty.

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