Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Verification and Compliance Rose Gottenmoeller today announced that the United States and Russia had exchanged 1,000 notifications in implementation of the treaty regime.
At a high level meeting on revitalizing the work of the conference on disarmament, Ms. Gottenmoeller said the United States welcomed the initiative of the Secretary-General to convene last September’s High Level Meeting on “Revitalizing the Work of the Conference on Disarmament and Taking Forward Multilateral Disarmament Negotiations,” in the hopes that it would spur progress on FMCT negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament.
She highlighted that two years ago in President Obama’s speech in Prague, he affirmed the commitment of the United States “to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” and laid out a plan of action for near term practical steps to move in that direction.
“Since then, significant progress has been registered. I won’t detail all of it here, but I would like to highlight a few successes because they stand in stark contrast to the continuing failure to begin negotiations on a priority objective – a ban on the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons.” -Ms. Gottenmoeller
She underlined that a key arms control achievement of the past year is the entry-into-force of the New START Treaty with the Russian Federation this past February. He added that implementation of the Treaty is well underway.
“As of last weekend, we and the Russian Federation had exchanged 1,000 notifications in implementation of the treaty regime. Furthermore, we have conducted 13 inspections, six by the Russian Federation and seven by the United States. We are keeping pace in our implementation efforts.” -Ms. Gottenmoeller
She stressed that the United Sates is in discussion with parties to the Southeast Asia and Central Asia nuclear- weapon- free- zones treaties in an effort to reach agreement that would allow the United States to sign the Protocols to those treaties, as well.
“The United States remains committed to securing ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), and we are engaging the United States Senate and the American public on the merits of that treaty.” -Ms. Gottenmoeller
Ms. Gottenmoeller underscored that the United States has spared no effort to initiate negotiations in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament on a Treaty banning the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons. She pointed out that completion of such a Treaty continues to be the top multilateral priority for the United States and the vast majority of others, and would be a major international achievement in nonproliferation and disarmament.
