News Highlights:
- President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia is suspending its participation in New START Treaty, the last major military agreement between Russia and the United States, just days before the first anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
- Putin said the fact that the US wants to inspect Russia’s military facilities — a requirement under the treaty — while simultaneously saying openly that its goal is Russia’s strategic defeat was the “theatre of the absurd”.
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty:
- About:
- START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America on the limitation and reduction of strategic offensive arms.
- The treaty was signed on 31 July 1991 and entered into force on 5 December 1994.
- On 8 April 2010, the replacement New START Treaty was signed in Prague by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
- Following its ratification by the US Senate and the Federal Assembly of Russia, the treaty went into force on 26 January 2011, the first to US tremendous reductions of American and Soviet or Russian strategic nuclear weapons.
- Overview:
- START-I, which capped the numbers of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that each side could deploy at 6,000 and 1,600, respectively, lapsed in 2009 and was replaced first by the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT, also known as the Treaty of Moscow), and then by the New START treaty.
- START negotiated the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and its final implementation in late 2001 resulted in the removal of about 80 per cent of all strategic nuclear weapons.
- Reductions mandated by the treaty were to be completed no later than seven years after it entered into force. Parties were then obligated to maintain those limits during the next eight years.
- The START proposal was announced by US President Ronald Reagan on 9 May 1982 and was presented by him in Geneva on 29 June 1982.
New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty:
- Limitations on strategic assets:
- The New START Treaty came with even more limitations on the United States and Russia by reducing their strategic assets within seven years of it coming into force.
- The limits were as per stringent analysis by the Department of Defense. These limitations consist of 1550 nuclear warheads, which include ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and even those ordinances used in heavy bomber formations.
- Compared to the treaty set in 1991, there is a 74%fewer limitation and 30% fewer in the Treaty of Moscow. Both parties will also be limited to a combined total of 800 deployed ICBM launchers.
- There won’t be any restrictions regarding the testing, development or deployment of current or planned US missile defence programs.
- The duration of the New START is 10 years, extendable for another 5 years at a time. It includes a standard withdrawal clause like other control agreements.
- Latest situation:
- The Russian President, in February 2023, announced suspending its participation in the last remaining major military agreement with the US – New START.
- The United States says that Russia was not complying with the New START Treaty, threatening a source of stability in their relationship.
- Russia says that the United States seeks Russia’s strategic defeat, and the “theatre of the absurd” (the idea of existentialism) is important to Russia.
Conclusion:
- Over the decades, the two sides signed various arms control agreements, imposing breaks on the nuclear arms race – an alarming feature of the Cold War competition.
- The relationship between the USA and Russia is worsening over time, and the suspension of most of the treaties in recent years has raised the risk of a nuclear arms race once again.
Pic Courtesy: Freepik
Content Source: The Hindu