NATO's bombing campaign may have won the war in Kosovo but damaged relations between Russia and the West were part of the price of victory. The decision by Moscow and Washington to open new talks on arms control and renew efforts to integrate Russia into the world economy is a welcome sign that the breach in ties is beginning to be bridged.
Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and U.S. Vice President Al Gore announced last Tuesday that the two countries will launch START III talks in August. The negotiations will aim at reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads to a maximum of 2,500 each. Also on the table for discussion will be amendments that Washington wants to make to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to allow the U.S. to develop a national missile defense system.
Several obstacles must be surmounted before an agreement can be realized. Washington is insisting, justifiably, that the 1993 START II treaty be approved by the Russian Parliament before a START III agreement can be signed. START II, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1996, would halve the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to between 3,000 to 3,500 warheads each. Conservative and Communist hardliners in the Duma, the Russian Parliament, have longed balked at ratifying the treaty, claiming that it would damage Russian security. The legislative body appeared close to ratifying the treaty last December, but U.S. raids on Iraq scuttled that debate. NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia in the spring kept the issue shelved. The picture now appears more promising, however. Prime Minister Stepashin has vowed to push for START II's ratification this fall when the Duma reconvenes, saying that both Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian government are "convinced" that ratification of the treaty is in the interests of Russia.