Frank Lautenberg: “I take the opportunity to make some comments regarding the ratification of the Moscow Treaty. I do it with some…”

“I take the opportunity to make some comments regarding the ratification of the Moscow Treaty. I do it with some reservation. I think the treaty is both a ``good news'' and ``bad news'' story. Right now, roughly speaking, the United States and Russia each deploy 6,000 nuclear warheads. The treaty would require the U.S. and Russia to reduce these levels to 1,700 to 2,200 ``operationally'' deployed strategic nuclear weapons on each side by December 2012. The good news is that this treaty is a positive step--long overdue, but a positive step nonetheless. Over 10 years ago, in January of 1992, when U.S.-Russian relations were the warmest in years, President Yeltsin of Russia proposed that the U.S. and Russia reach a strategic arms control agreement that set the levels at 2,000-2,500 in a START II agreement. If former President Bush had agreed back then, we could be close to the levels today that the Moscow Treaty envisions for 10 years from now. At the time former President Yeltsin made his proposal for deep reductions, Defense Department officials, especially Defense Secretary Cheney--now our Vice President--opposed them. As a result, the START II agreement, signed in January 1993, only limited the number of strategic nuclear warheads to 3,000 to 3,500 on each side. And due to wrangling over national missile defense the START II agreement never entered into force.”