Paring Down the Arsenal

Abstract

The Helsinki Summit in March gave a much needed impulse-albeit a modest one-to the long-dormant nuclear arms reduction process. There had been no negotiations since the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II) had been signed four years earlier. Although the treaty had been ratified by the US Senate, it had not been ratified by the Russian Duma, where opposition was intense. By the time the summit convened, it looked as if the treaty might simply unravel, the victim of lingering Cold War-era distrust. But President Boris Yeltsin said at the conclusion of the summit that enough progress had been made to {open_quotes}prepare grounds so that the Duma could positively look at ratifying START II.{close_quotes} That progress included a commitment by President Bill Clinton to begin negotiating a START III agreement after the Duma ratifies START II. The aim of START III, according to Clinton and Yeltsin, would be to reduce the ceiling on the number of deployed strategic warheads on each side to 2,000-2,500 by the end of the year 2007. In contrast, START II called for a limit of 3,500 deployed strategic warheads by 2003.