The treaty emphasizes the link between offensive and defensive weapons

According to the former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, the new START agreement is critical for arms control. Scowcroft, who served as the National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, addressed an audience at the Brookings Institution in an effort to persuade members of the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate to support the treaty. In order to secure the ratification of the new START treaty, 67 members of the Senate must vote to support it, which means that at least 8 Republican senators must agree to back the international accord.

Scowcroft believes that the debates raging in and out of the U.S. Senate are wholly unrelated to the very subject of the treaty itself. The former National Security Advisor thinks that while the treaty does contemplate a significant reduction of offensive nuclear weapons, both the U.S. and Russia will still have adequate nuclear capabilities to maintain mutual trust.

The treaty between Russia and the United States on the reduction and limitation of strategic armaments was signed on April 8, 2010, as a successor to the START I treaty of 1991. The new accord would also replace the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty of 2002 (SORT).

Politicians and historians are in agreement that START I contributed to the maintenance of world peace, stability, and security, creating a new sense of trust between the former adversaries in the Cold War. The treaty also promoted increased transparency and predictability of the process Russia and the U.S. used to dismantle nuclear armaments. While both countries complied with the provisions of START I, strategic analysts and diplomats decided to step up reduction efforts even further with the new agreement.

The fulfillment of START I would not have been possible in the absence of cooperation of Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Those nations signed the separate Lisbon Protocol in 1992. The decision of those nations to remove all nuclear armaments from their territories pursuant to the Non-Proliferation Treaty enhanced national security and had a positive effect on nuclear stability overall.

The draft of the new arms reduction agreement was devised in accordance with instructions from the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the Russian-American declaration adopted at the London meeting in April 2009 and at the Moscow summit in July 2009. Talks between Russian and American negotiators commenced in July of 2009 in Geneva, and 10 rounds of discussions were conducted over a period of 8 months.

Under the previous strategic arms limitation regime, the number of strategic delivery vehicles, including land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers was to be decreased to 1 600, and the number of warheads was to go down to 6 000.

At the July 2009 summit in Moscow, Presidents Medvedev and Obama said that a new agreement was necessary to ensure continued reduction of strategic offensive weapons. The two heads of state also agreed to adhere to the objectives of reducing nuclear capabilities of their nations even after the expiration of START I. The two leaders further promised to comply with the security guarantees as defined by the Budapest memoranda.

The Presidents’ joint declaration on the new START agreement read as follows: “Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the START treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date.”

When the new treaty will be ratified, the following maximum limits on nuclear forces of Russia and the United States will be in place: 1 550 deployed warheads for each side, which is approximately one-third less than the SORT level; 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed submarine-based ballistic missiles, and deployed heavy bombers, which is twice lower than the START level; 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers of intercontinental ballistic missiles, deployed and non-deployed launchers of submarine-based ballistic missiles, and deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers.

The treaty provides that each side will retain the right to structure the strategic armaments fleet as it deems necessary.

Key provisions in the new treaty also lay out regulations for exchanging information, providing notices, disposing of strategic weapons, as well as conducting inspections. Diplomats say that the new verification procedures will be easier and less costly compared to START I mechanisms. At the same time, they will ensure irreversibility, transparency, and mutual confidence of the two sides in the arms reduction process. 

The treaty signed by Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama also addresses strategic defensive systems. Legally-binding provisions in the treaty emphasize the importance of the link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons.

The treaty also addresses non-nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-based ballistic missiles. Under the treaty’s provisions, all strategic offensive weapons may be deployed exclusively within the national boundaries of the United States and Russia. A bilateral advisory commission monitoring the two countries’ adherence to the treaty will also be established.

The treaty will remain in force for a period of ten years, provided that it is not superseded by any other strategic offensive arms limitations agreements.

The joint statement of the Russian and the American Presidents on the new agreement underscored the importance of the treaty for the Russian-American strategic partnership, as the ultimate goal of the two nations is to attain a nuclear-free world.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has delayed a vote on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty until after the August recess. The main concern of U.S. lawmakers with the new treaty arises from the need of the United States to modernize its own nuclear arsenal. Some have also suggested that the U.S. faces more international military threats than Russia and would thus require a larger nuclear arsenal. At the same time, peace advocates call these objections ungrounded, as the nuclear forces that would remain at the disposal of the U.S. and Russia even if the treaty is adopted “would have the capability of annihilating the entire planet several times over.”

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asked the Russian parliament to synchronize the ratification of the new accord with the passage of the treaty in the U.S. Senate.