US plans to propose broader arms control agenda with Russia, to include short-range weapons

US plans broader nuclear arms talks with Russians

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is poised to adopt a new policy potentially restricting the nation’s use of nuclear arms, U.S. officials said, and hopes to persuade Russia to agree to mutual cuts in nuclear arsenals that go beyond the arms treaty both sides will sign this week.

A policy review, expected to be released Tuesday, is likely to include language reducing U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons for its national defense. That reflects President Barack Obama’s pledge to move toward a nuclear free world, and could strengthen U.S. arguments that other countries should either reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons or forego developing them.

The White House also planned to urge Russia to adopt first-ever limits on shorter-range, less powerful nuclear weapons, an arena in which Russia holds an advantage, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy review has not been released.

These officials said the administration’s new policy would stop short of renouncing the use of nuclear weapons except in retaliation to atomic attack, as some activists have advocated. But it would describe the weapons’ purpose as “primarily” or “fundamentally” to deter or respond to a nuclear attack.

Officials said the document was expected to move toward a policy that says the “sole purpose” of nuclear weapons is to deter or respond to nuclear attack. That wording would rule out the use of such weapons to respond to an attack by conventional, biological or chemical weapons. Previous U.S. policy was more ambiguous.

The Obama administration plans to urge Russia to return to the bargaining table following Senate ratification of the new START arms reduction treaty, to be signed by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague on Thursday.

The White House hopes to overcome Russia’s expressed reluctance to move beyond START, especially if it means cutting Moscow’s arsenal of tactical, or short-range nuclear arms.

These so-called theater nuclear weapons play a key role in Russia’s overall defense strategy and are regarded in Moscow as an important bargaining chip on security issues.

The timing of a planned U.S. push for new, broader arms talks with Russia is uncertain. But officials said the proposal would only come after U.S. and Russian legislative approval of the new START pact, which isn’t expected until the end of this year.

The Russian parliament is almost certain to sign off on any deal negotiated by the Kremlin, but the U.S. Senate’s ratification of the new START treaty is far from a sure thing.

Obama is hosting dozens of world leaders in a nuclear security summit in Washington next week.

One senior administration official said that the U.S. wants another round of talks between the White House and the Kremlin that would include so-called “non-deployed” nuclear weapons — the thousands of warheads on both sides that are held in reserve and not ready for immediate use.

George Perkovich, a nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Russians have a strong incentive to limit reserve weaponry because the U.S. could quickly mount its stored warheads back onto missiles.

Russia’s struggling military forces would have a harder time preparing their reserve warheads for use in the event of war.

U.S. officials believe that talks on reducing stockpiled warheads could persuade Russia to negotiate limits on short-range weapons — a category of arms in which the Russians hold a large numerical advantage.

But the call for expanded talks is also linked to a nearer-term goal: constraining the spread of nuclear weapons technology and keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

Reducing the short range bombs and stored warheads would involve more intrusive inspections than agreed in the treaty Obama and Medvedev will sign this week. But officials say that new technologies for verifying and counting warheads could ease concerns on both sides about protecting the secrecy of their weapons designs.

These technologies allow inspectors to verify narrow characteristics of warheads without revealing details of their structure.

Another potential obstacle to expanding the next set of nuclear arms talks is Russia’s strong resistance to U.S. missile defense in Europe.

Moscow sought to include constraints on missile defense in the new START, but U.S. officials say the agreement contains no such limits. The treaty text has not been made public.

Overall, when it comes to further cuts in nuclear arsenals, the Obama administration could face an uphill struggle in any effort to bring Russia back to the bargaining table.

“The Russians seem less than enthusiastic about moving ahead with this,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation that advocates for a nuclear weapon-free world.

Ellen Tauscher, the under secretary of state for arms control, told reporters March 29 that the administration has a “big agenda” for the next set of nuclear arms talks, and that it includes limiting short-range weapons.

The U.S. has an estimated 200 short-range nuclear weapons in Europe under a NATO agreement, whereas the Russians are believed to have 10 times that many deployed in European Russia.

These weapons are a legacy of the Cold War standoff in divided Europe, and there is now a growing push by Europeans to negotiate away these weapons.

Russia, on the other hand, sees tactical nuclear warheads as a counterweight to the military superiority of NATO.

In its just-completed reassessment of U.S. nuclear weapons policy — known as the Nuclear Posture Review— the administration chose not to commit to reducing its nuclear weapons in Europe. The thinking was that it should be addressed in negotiations with the Russians, several officials said.