President Barack Obama scored a win on a key foreign-policy initiative after the U.S. Senate approved a treaty with Russia that cuts nuclear arms and renews weapons inspections on the last day of the 111th Congress.
After eight days of debate, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty cleared its final hurdle and was approved 71-26, exceeding the minimum threshold of 67 votes needed to secure its passage. Thirteen Republicans joined 56 Democrats and two independents in the final vote held yesterday.
“Democrats and Republicans came together to approve my top national security priority,” Obama said yesterday at a year-end press conference at the White House. “With this treaty, our inspectors will also be back on the ground at Russian nuclear bases, so we will be able to trust, but verify.”
The positive outcome caps Obama’s victories in the post- election lame-duck session. Other successes include the repeal of a law that banned gays from serving openly in the military, and on the economic front, an $858 billion deal to extend tax cuts and unemployment assistance for the long-term jobless.
The timing for the ratification for New Start was critical. A reduced Democratic majority in the chamber in January, the result of last month’s elections, would have made the vote more tenuous and hurt the president’s credibility abroad.
‘Enormously Important’
“It is an enormously important measure of credibility for the president,” Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters after the vote. “It’s critical” for any U.S. president to be able “to sit down with leaders in another country and to say to them, if we agree to X, Y and Z, I can deliver.”
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the accord in April as part of a push to restore relations between the two former Cold War rivals and reduce the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.
The treaty, replacing an agreement that expired last December, limits each side’s strategic warheads to no more than 1,550, from 2,200 allowed previously, and sets a maximum of 800 land-, air- and sea-based launchers.
“Obama’s ambitions for nuclear reductions were pared down at the negotiating table, but he succeeded in bringing home an agreement that further reduced nuclear forces in a structured, verifiable way,” said Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington, in an e-mail.
Russian Hurdle
Having cleared the U.S. Senate, the treaty now must be approved by Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Andrei Klimov, deputy head of the Duma’s foreign affairs committee, said it could be passed tomorrow in the last full session of the year.
With Vice President Joe Biden in the chair, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton worked the chamber, greeting former Senate colleagues and shaking hands. She spent much of her time on the Republican side of the aisle, talking with Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, a treaty supporter, and Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, who helped spearhead the ratification drive as the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Opponents argued that the treaty limits U.S. options for developing missile defenses, a project Russia has opposed. They also contend that the new accord’s verification standards aren’t strong enough and that Obama hasn’t made sufficient assurances that the existing U.S. arsenal will be adequately maintained.
In an effort to whittle down opposition to the treaty, the administration added $5 billion in recent weeks to its 10-year, $80 billion plan unveiled earlier this year.
McCain Opposes
That succeeded in winning over some Republicans but not Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, among the sternest critics seeking to postpone the vote. Both declined to comment on the passage of the treaty.
“This was contentious,” said Lugar, who had worked to gather Republican support.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said New Start would improve security. It requires lower numbers of weapons, provides a “rigorous” inspection system and offers the flexibility the U.S. needs to pursue missile defenses against attacks from potential adversaries, such as Iran, he said.
Military commanders and defense and nuclear officials have testified that the accord doesn’t limit missile-defense options and that it improves the ability to verify Russia’s adherence to agreed weapons thresholds.
Former President George H.W. Bush, current and former U.S. military commanders and Cabinet secretaries, including Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell all supported ratification.
The Senate approved the original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1992 by a vote of 93-6. Four years later, Start II won approval, 87-4. The 2002 Moscow Treaty, which drew on the same verification procedures as in Start, was approved 95-0.
--With assistance from Kate Andersen Brower, Mark Drajem, Ryan Donmoyer, Roger Runningen, Flavia Krause-Jackson, David Lerman and Nicholas Johnston in Washington, Balazs Penz in Budapest and Henry Meyer in Moscow. Editors: Steven Komarow, Bill Austin
