William Pomeranz, Deputy Director of WWC’s Kennan Institute, says the START renewal negotiations took up most of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Barack Obama’s attention, and left little time room for discussions on the U.S.’s missile defense shield in Poland. Pomeranz argues that President Obama was not ready to admit that he would discontinue this project. (0:36)
Blair Ruble, Director of the WWC’s Kennan Institute, argues that the U.S-Russia Summit of July 6th-8th resulted in ‘modest goals’ being met. Ruble explains that the summit granted Americans overflight rights in Russian terrority in order to supply American troops in Afghanistan. Ruble also notes that the summit put an agreement on arms control on both nations’ agendas and established further U.S-Russian ties. (0:52)
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
According to experts from the Woodrow Wilson Center, the July 6th-8th U.S-Russia Summit did not produce decisive agreements, but paved the way for the pursuit of further cooperation between the two former Cold War nations.
Blair Ruble, Director of WWC’s Kennan Institute, said “Before everybody forgets about this summit, I think its important to say that the meeting accomplished certain modest goals and in the best case has provided a platform for the relationship between the United States and Russia to develop a little bit further.”
William Pomeranz, Deputy Director of WWC’s Kennan Institute, added that the two countries had hoped to work on bilateral commissions and moving forward with START, but that “If the goal was initially to reset the tone, there was some success in resetting the tone.”
Experts had anticipated that the renewal of START on non-proliferation, and the U.S.’s plan to install a missile defense shield in Poland would create discord between President Barack Obama and Moscow.
Although the Poland issue was not part of the talks, Ruble said that “The granting of over-flight rights to the Americans who are moving military goods and personnel to Afghanistan is a positive step.”
Despite the fact that the two nations were able to come to any major agreements, Ruble suggested that the context in which the Summit took place may justify the lack of symbolism of the meeting.
“It already up to a certain extent, is a non event, certainly in comparison with other events in the past, and this has something to do with the G8 meting following immediately thereafter. It has to do with the coincidence of the Michael Jackson funeral really pushing the summit aside,” said Ruble.
Yevgeny Volk, Coordinator at the Heritage Foundation’s Moscow office, joins a discussion, via satellite, on the upcoming U.S.-Russia Summit. He says Russia must look at arms control as a two-way street, not only preventing present threats but also forthcoming threats. He also adds that they must realize that the threats are not coming from the United States. (0:40)
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
As the July 6th thru 8th US-Russia Summit draws nearer, a plethora of foreign affairs and Russian experts gathered on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation to discuss the likelihood that the summit produces changes in America’s policies towards Russia. Several panelists agreed that the meeting should lead to the reestablishment of disabled ties between the two states.
Former National Intelligence Council Chairman Fritz Ermath said “the Obama administration is trying to improve U.S-Russian relations from their worst or chilliest since the Cold War.”
President Barack Obama will be visiting Russia next week as part of a series of trips abroad. The administration’s meeting with the Russian government should include discussions on the renewal of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), ratified by Russia and the United States in 1991 to achieve a dramatic reduction in strategic forces. The treaty also brought Georgia into NATO.
Ermath explained that “as was the case in the Cold War today, U.S policy-making for Russia should be informed by the deepest possible understanding of Russia as a system, as a country, as a state, as a culture. During the Cold War, we devoted enormous resources to the Soviet Union, comprehensively, not just militarily, and that investment payed off.”
“Our understanding of Russia is weaker than it should be. This is partly because its a confusing reality. Russia doesn’t get the attention it deserves in academic, think tank, and government analytical circles. other priorities have taken over the funding,” he added.
But, according to Ariel Cohen, Senior Research Fellow of Russian and Eurasian Studies, progress between the two nations on the issue of weapons is being impeded by past tensions.
“Arms control is at the heart of historically the U.S soviet relationship and now Us-Russia relationship,” Cohen said.
Baker Spring, a Research Fellow on National Security Policy at the Heritage Foundation, insisted that “it is necessarily the case that arms control and missile defense are going to have a close relationship with each other,” referring to the Bush administration’s decision to install missiles at a base in Poland, and to build a radar station in the Czech Republic.
“The question really is what is the direction of that relationship. Is arms control going to drive the agenda to the detriment of missile defense or can missile defense be a driver to push arms control in the right direction and in my opinion the latter is defining the direction we need to be moving in because the most immediate requirement for both the U.S and Russian is to adjust to the unpredictable nature of today’s world,” said Spring.
