When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Munich in March she presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a gift intended to symbolize the Obama administration’s desire to “push the reset button” on U.S. relations with Moscow. Problem is, the lettering on the little red button said “overload” (peregruzka), not “reset” (perezagruzka). This high level gaffe is just about the perfect symbol for how Obama’s Russian relation relaunch has gone. White House wordsmiths seem to also have forgotten that if you push the reset button, old software bugs get …
Secretary Clinton indicated in a speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace on Wednesday that the Administration’s efforts have been increasingly directed toward an arms control and non-proliferation agenda. The Administration is hastily pursuing the ratification of a START follow-on treaty with Russia and, in addition, Secretary Clinton announced on Wednesday that the U.S. will reaffirm the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and commit to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and negotiate a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). Clinton criticized the view held …
FOX News reports: Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads. The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted. Initial thoughts: The description reported in the press of what has been agreed to is way too vague to know whether there would be a significant security risk. What we know for …
You know something is amiss when the French take a harder line on national security than the United States. At the United Nations last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy chided President Obama for his “dream” of ridding the world of nuclear weapons, reminding him that “we live in a real world, not a virtual world.” Ouch. The French like to sting American presidents, but this is different. It’s not the normal Gallic jab at America for being a “hyper power,” but a French leader reminding an American president of his …
The Wall Street Journal reports today: Russia on Thursday welcomed the news but said it saw no reason to offer concessions in return. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened last November to station tactical Iskander missiles on Poland’s border if the U.S. system was deployed. Anticipating President Barack Obama‘s surrender to Russia on missile defense, The Heritage Foundation hosted an event featuring Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) this past Tuesday, titled, No Grand Bargain with Russia: Why Missile Defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic Are Vital to the Security of Europe …
As President Obama and Russian President Medvedev met in Moscow July 6-8, arms control and missile defense were key issues. Both sides agreed to a preliminary framework for a treaty to replace the START Treaty, which expires in December. However, since before Obama arrived in Moscow, President Medvedev has been tying arms control to the U.S.’s abandoning of the third site in Europe. The third site, a missile defense system proposed by President Bush, includes ten interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic to protect our allies …
The Geneva meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hardly attracted Russian spotlight. Moscow does not have much faith in a fast track success toward improving bilateral relations and resolving multiple thorny issues. Nevertheless, the Kremlin is viewing with hope some of the signals the Washington Administration has been sending Moscow, especially those concerning missile defenses in Europe, as helping to meet Russia’s objectives. Some Moscow observers believe that the Obama Administration’s approach to the U.S.-Russian relations that is currently taking shape is …
Friday night, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a dinner in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss US-Russian relations. As a token, Secretary Clinton brought a yellow box with a button and the words “reset” on both sides in English and Russian. Apparently, the State Department got the Russian word for “reset” wrong and instead it said “overload”. This is highly symbolic, as incompetence and haste in foreign affairs are the enemies of wisdom, or as the Russian proverb goes, “Measure seven times before cutting”. …
