Four Senators Urge Trump Admin. To Begin Strategic Talks With Russia With Out DELAY! (Only EIR Daily Alert & RT Reporting on THIS!) Feature Pic: What We Need: Trump & Putin Meeting and Working Together!
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Senators Urge Trump Administration To Rush New Strategic Talks with Russia
March 9 (EIRNS)—Four U.S. Senators urged the Trump Administration to begin a new round of strategic talks with Russia without delay in a March 8 letter.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov already responded today, from his visit in Ethiopia, saying “We have always stood out for further dialogue on strategic stability between Russia and the United States.”
The four Senators, Edward Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, “A U.S.-Russia Strategic Dialogue is more urgent, following President Putin’s public address March 1, when he referred to several new nuclear weapons Russia is reportedly developing, including a cruise missile and a nuclear underwater drone, which are not currently limited by the New START treaty, and would be destabilizing if deployed.”
The Senators’ letter acknowledged that the U.S. had disagreements with Russia on various matters, including alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; alleged Russian interference in U.S. elections and foreign policy matters. “However, it is due to these policy rifts, not in spite of them, that the United States should urgently engage with Russia to avoid miscalculation and reduce the likelihood of conflict,” the Senators wrote.
The letter continues that the INF Treaty can resolve an alleged “violation by Russia through existing INF Treaty provisions or new mutually acceptable terms.” The letter also states that the New START treaty which entered into force in 2011, and which provides thousands of data exchanges and on-site inspections, “could also govern two of the new types of nuclear weapons referenced by President Putin on March 1.”
The letter concludes: “There is no guarantee that we can make progress with Russia on these issues. However, even at the height of Cold War tensions, the United States and the Soviet Union were able to engage on matters of strategic stability. Leaders from both countries believed, as we should today, that the incredible destructive force of nuclear weapons is reason enough to make any and all efforts to lessen the chance that they can never be used again.”
