WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- As part of the Obama administration's continued efforts, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday wrote about the urgency to pass this year in the Senate the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) signed with Russia in April.
"In September 2009, when President (Barack) Obama decided to alter his predecessor's plans for missile defense in Europe, some critics claimed that we had sacrificed our allies in the interest of the 'reset' with Russia," Biden wrote in The Wall Street Journal. "Others thought that we would derail the reset by proceeding with the new plan. The skeptics were wrong on both counts."He argued that at NATO's summit in Lisbon, Portugal last weekend, President Obama united Europe behind U.S. missile-defense plans and received "strong support" for the new START treaty that is awaiting ratification in the Senate. "In doing so, he proved that missile defense and arms control can proceed hand-in-hand," the vice president added.
He was addressing concerns of some Republican senators that the pact would limit U.S. missile defense programs.
He dwelled on the changes taking place in U.S.-Europe relations after two years of intensive diplomacy, citing examples like the positive atmosphere in Lisbon and the "substantial progress" on priorities like missile defense, arms control and the Russia reset.
"NATO's adoption of territorial missile defense as a new mission shows that President Obama has rebuilt the alliance's underlying consensus about the threats we face and how to meet them," Biden wrote. "The U.S. contribution to this effort will be the European Phased Adaptive Approach, which will include Aegis ships capable of ballistic missile defense, a forward-based radar, and land-based SM-3 interceptor sites in Romania and Poland.""NATO missile defense also provides the opportunity for further improvements in both NATO-Russian and U.S.-Russian relations. NATO and Russia agreed at Lisbon to carry out a joint ballistic missile threat assessment, to resume theater missile-defense exercises, and to explore further cooperation on territorial missile defense - - things that were nearly unimaginable two years ago," he wrote.
The new START treaty is seen as a major achievement of the Obama administration in foreign relations and part of its efforts to reset relations with Russia.
The treaty stipulates that the number of nuclear warheads be reduced to 1,550 on each side over seven years, while the number of delivery vehicles, both deployed and non-deployed, must not exceed 800. It also sets out rules for verification and monitoring of the nuclear arsenals on both sides.
When signing the pact in Prague, Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medevedev agreed that the ratification process should be simultaneous at U.S. Senate and Russia's Duma.
Obama and other high-ranking officials have warned time and again that delayed passage of the pact would, among others, undercut warming relations with Russia and weaken its cooperation on key issues like Iran.
"These agreements underscore the strategic importance the alliance attaches to improving its relationship with Russia, but trust and confidence in our relationship with Russia would be undermined without Senate approval of the new START treaty, which reduces strategic nuclear forces to levels not seen since the 1950s, and restores important verification mechanisms that ceased when the first START treaty expired last December," Biden wrote in the paper.
He said: "European leaders understand that new START advances their security as well as America's, and that is an important foundation for future negotiations on conventional forces and tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. That is why all 27 of our NATO allies expressed their desire to see the treaty's early ratification."Stressing the pact as a "cornerstone" of U.S. efforts to reset relations with Russia, Biden pointed to Russia's cooperation on strong sanctions against and cancellation of the sale of an advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Iran. He also stressed Russian permission of flow of material through its territory for U. S. troops in Afghanistan.
"The Lisbon summit showed that American leadership in Europe remains essential, it also reminded us why the stakes of the new START treaty are so high," the vice president wrote. "Our uniformed military supports it. Our European allies support it. Our national security interests are at stake. It is time for the Senate to approve new START."（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑） |