US Mission Geneva

The lack of regular data exchanges and on-site verification measures means that our understanding of Russian missile and bomber forces will diminish over time. As General Chilton, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, has said: “Without New START, we would rapidly lose insight into Russian strategic nuclear force developments and activities, and our force modernization planning and hedging strategy would be more complex and more costly. Without such a regime, we would unfortunately be left to use worst-case analyses regarding our own force requirements.”

The New START Treaty Makes America More Secure. Significantly reducing – by nearly 700 – the limit on the number of strategic nuclear weapons that Russia can deploy; allowing us to keep a close eye on the remaining ones; building stability, predictability, and transparency for the two countries with 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons; and strengthening America’s fight against nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and rogue states.

While we do not negotiate agreements here at the First Committee, we do share views on how to move forward productively the disarmament and international security agenda. At this year’s First Committee meeting, my delegation hopes to build on last year’s successful session, and the successful events since then.

I am honored to speak to you today on behalf of Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemoeller who very much regrets she was unable to be with you today because of pressing business on the new START treaty at home. As a loyal IISS alum, she sends her best regards to the Institute and to all of the participants in this important conference.

The New START Treaty establishes the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC) to discuss issues related to Treaty implementation. The use of treaty-based commissions to agree on limited technical changes to improve or clarify implementation of treaty provisions is a well-established practice in arms control treaties.

A little over a year ago, the Administration set out to negotiate the New START Treaty with the goal of replacing the expiring START Treaty with a new agreement for each Party to reduce and limit its strategic offensive arms. I want to underscore that the focus of these negotiations from beginning to end was strategic offensive arms.

My colleague and I, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, the Russian chief START negotiator and I have been briefing the new START treaty to important international organizations…Today we are briefing the CD here in Geneva, and so it’s very good to be back in Geneva and with the opportunity to present the results of the negotiations on a bilateral basis to the Conference on Disarmament.

Yesterday, the President transmitted the New START Treaty to the United States Senate. All of the documents associated with the transmittal package, including the texts of the Treaty, Protocol, and Annexes; the unilateral statements associated with the Treaty; the Secretary’s Report, including a detailed Article-by-Article analysis of the Treaty; and the President’s Message to the Senate are available on the State Department website.

Thirteen months ago in Prague, President Obama highlighted the nuclear dangers of the twenty-first century and laid out a pragmatic agenda to confront those dangers. He reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons, and pledged to take concrete steps to achieve that goal. The United States is unequivocally committed to this goal.