For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 20, 2002
Message to the Senate of the United States
TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
I transmit herewith, for the advice and consent of the Senate to
ratification, the Treaty Between the United States of America and the
Russian Federation on Strategic Offensive Reductions, signed at Moscow
on May 24, 2002 (the "Moscow Treaty").
The Moscow Treaty represents an important element of the new
strategic relationship between the United States and Russia. It will
take our two nations along a stable, predictable path to substantial
reductions in our deployed strategic nuclear warhead arsenals by
December 31, 2012. When these reductions are completed, each country
will be at the lowest level of deployed strategic nuclear warheads in
decades. This will benefit the peoples of both the United States and
Russia and contribute to a more secure world.
The Moscow Treaty codifies my determination to break through the
long impasse in further nuclear weapons reductions caused by the
inability to finalize agreements through traditional arms control
efforts. In the decade following the collapse of the Soviet Union,
both countries' strategic nuclear arsenals remained far larger than
needed, even as the United States and Russia moved toward a more
cooperative relationship. On May 1, 2001, I called for a new framework
for our strategic relationship with Russia, including further cuts in
nuclear weapons to reflect the reality that the Cold War is over. On
November 13, 2001, I announced the United States plan for such cuts --
to reduce our operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads to a
level of between 1700 and 2200 over the next decade. I announced these
planned reductions following a careful study within the Department of
Defense. That study, the Nuclear Posture Review, concluded that these
force levels were sufficient to maintain the security of the United
States. In reaching this decision, I recognized that it would be
preferable for the United States to make such reductions on a
reciprocal basis with Russia, but that the United States would be
prepared to proceed unilaterally.
My Russian counterpart, President Putin, responded immediately and
made clear that he shared these goals. President Putin and I agreed
that our nations' respective reductions should be recorded in a legally
binding document that would outlast both of our presidencies and
provide predictability over the longer term. The result is a Treaty
that was agreed without protracted negotiations. This Treaty fully
meets the goals I set out for these reductions.
It is important for there to be sufficient openness so that the
United States and Russia can each be confident that the other is
fulfilling its reductions commitment. The Parties will use the
comprehensive verification regime of the Treaty on the Reduction and
Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the "START Treaty") to provide
the foundation for confidence, transparency, and predictability in
further strategic offensive reductions. In our Joint Declaration on
the New Strategic Relationship between the United States and
Russia, President Putin and I also decided to establish a Consultative
Group for Strategic Security to be chaired by Foreign and Defense
Ministers. This body will be the principal mechanism through which the
United States and Russia strengthen mutual confidence, expand
transparency, share information and plans, and discuss strategic issues
of mutual interest.
The Moscow Treaty is emblematic of our new, cooperative
relationship with Russia, but it is neither the primary basis for this
relationship nor its main component. The United States and Russia are
partners in dealing with the threat of terrorism and resolving regional
conflicts. There is growing economic interaction between the business
communities of our two countries and ever-increasing people-to-people
and cultural contacts and exchanges. The U.S. military has put Cold
War practices behind it, and now plans, sizes, and sustains its forces
in recognition that Russia is not an enemy, Russia is a friend.
Military-to-military and intelligence exchanges are well established
and growing.
The Moscow Treaty reflects this new relationship with Russia.
Under it, each Party retains the flexibility to determine for itself
the composition and structure of its strategic offensive arms, and how
reductions are made. This flexibility allows each Party to determine
how best to respond to future security challenges.
There is no longer the need to narrowly regulate every step we each
take, as did Cold War treaties founded on mutual suspicion and an
adversarial relationship.
In sum, the Moscow Treaty is clearly in the best interests of the
United States and represents an important contribution to U.S. national
security and strategic stability. I therefore urge the Senate to give
prompt and favorable consideration to the Treaty, and to advise and
consent to its ratification.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 20, 2002.
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