The vision of a nuclear-free world
Friday, 10 July 2009
US President Barack Obama visited Moscow on July 6-7 apparently to pursue his avowed goal of resetting the relations between the United States of America and Russia. He found in President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia a good partner in this delicate mission. It was earlier speculated that the United States and Russia would sign an economic agreement during Obama's Moscow visit. This did not happen and there was no official word on the subject either. The "joint understanding" the two presidents signed on July 6 deals with nuclear arms reduction, military cooperation and, last but not the least, the Afghan war.
The Moscow declaration sets in motion fast-track negotiations between the United States and Russia to reach a new nuclear arms reduction pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which is scheduled to expire on December 5, 2009. The declaration provides for cuts of "up to a third" from current limitations. The two presidents have also agreed to resume bilateral military cooperation between their two countries which was suspended in the wake of the war between Russia and Georgia in August last year. These two developments were predictable. The real breakthrough in the relations between the two countries is the deal on Afghanistan under which Russia has agreed to allow US military flights over Russian territories to Afghanistan to facilitate Obama's surge in Afghan war.
The wholesome outcome of Moscow talks was possible because Obama and Medeved skirted the contentious issues that bedevil the bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. They left thorny subjects like US's plan to install missile defence facilities in Czech Republic and Poland, Nato's plan to expand eastward etc., for negotiations in the future. Obama's Moscow visit, thus, turns a new page in the bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The relations between these two countries soured as America under President George W Bush followed the principles of unilateralism and triumphalism in pursuit of total global domination. The Moscow agreement shows that Russia does think it can do business with the new American president, Obama who preaches multilateralism.
An improvement in the relations between the two most powerful countries in the world has obviously global ramifications. But more significant is the fact that the Obama-Medeved Moscow declaration is a promising follow-up of the London declaration the two statesmen issued on April 1 last. In the London declaration, the presidents of the two countries which together possess about 95 per cent of world's nuclear warheads, pledged to reduce their nuclear arsenals and presented a vision of creating, eventually, a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama and Medeved took a first step -- albeit a small one -- towards that dream by agreeing to make a significant cut in their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Even if a new version of START is signed and implemented, the huge amount of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia will still possess will possibly be sufficient to destroy the world several times over. Also worth noting is the stubborn adherence of the leaders of the two countries to the Cold-War doctrine of deterrence which is known by the chilling acronym, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).
Nevertheless, the dream of a nuclear-free world is a wholesome dream. The scientists were first to sound the alarm bell against the dangers of the nuclear weapons. The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, issued on July 9, 1955, made a clarion call: "We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death."
The Moscow declaration sets in motion fast-track negotiations between the United States and Russia to reach a new nuclear arms reduction pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which is scheduled to expire on December 5, 2009. The declaration provides for cuts of "up to a third" from current limitations. The two presidents have also agreed to resume bilateral military cooperation between their two countries which was suspended in the wake of the war between Russia and Georgia in August last year. These two developments were predictable. The real breakthrough in the relations between the two countries is the deal on Afghanistan under which Russia has agreed to allow US military flights over Russian territories to Afghanistan to facilitate Obama's surge in Afghan war.
The wholesome outcome of Moscow talks was possible because Obama and Medeved skirted the contentious issues that bedevil the bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. They left thorny subjects like US's plan to install missile defence facilities in Czech Republic and Poland, Nato's plan to expand eastward etc., for negotiations in the future. Obama's Moscow visit, thus, turns a new page in the bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The relations between these two countries soured as America under President George W Bush followed the principles of unilateralism and triumphalism in pursuit of total global domination. The Moscow agreement shows that Russia does think it can do business with the new American president, Obama who preaches multilateralism.
An improvement in the relations between the two most powerful countries in the world has obviously global ramifications. But more significant is the fact that the Obama-Medeved Moscow declaration is a promising follow-up of the London declaration the two statesmen issued on April 1 last. In the London declaration, the presidents of the two countries which together possess about 95 per cent of world's nuclear warheads, pledged to reduce their nuclear arsenals and presented a vision of creating, eventually, a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama and Medeved took a first step -- albeit a small one -- towards that dream by agreeing to make a significant cut in their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Even if a new version of START is signed and implemented, the huge amount of nuclear weapons the United States and Russia will still possess will possibly be sufficient to destroy the world several times over. Also worth noting is the stubborn adherence of the leaders of the two countries to the Cold-War doctrine of deterrence which is known by the chilling acronym, MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).
Nevertheless, the dream of a nuclear-free world is a wholesome dream. The scientists were first to sound the alarm bell against the dangers of the nuclear weapons. The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, issued on July 9, 1955, made a clarion call: "We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death."