Russian-U.S. Arms Control And Nonproliferation Dialogue: Expert Recommendations

MOSCOW, VIENNA, JUNE 15, 2021. PIR PRESS. June 15, 18:00-19:00 (Moscow time), one day before the Geneva meeting of Presidents Putin and Biden, PIR Center, Vienna Center for Nonproliferation and Disarmament (VCDNP), and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will present their recommendations on restoring Russian-U.S. dialogue on arms control and nonproliferation. The event, crowning several years of Track II dialogue between Russian and U.S. experts, will launch a joint report The Future of U.S.- Russian Arms Control: Principles of Engagement and New Approaches and a collective monograph by PIR Center Russia-U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Dialogue: Lessons Learned And Road Ahead.

The recommendations and assessments are as follows:

• Arms control is equally needed by both Russia and the United States. The creation of a next-generation security architecture must be supported by the belief on both sides in the importance of arms control. 
• It is necessary to resume informal consultations on strategic stability as soon as possible. A preliminary discussion will not remove all questions and does not mean that all problems can be solved simultaneously. However, in the course of an informal discussion, participants could sort all the issues into “baskets” and determine a new priority agenda to be discussed during formal negotiations. The research is now available in English.
• It is unlikely that Russia and the United States will be ready or, in the case of the United States, able to sign and ratify a legally binding treaty covering all these types of weapons. Nevertheless, despite the development of new technologies, Russia and the United States should strive for legally binding agreements in areas closely related to verification – especially regarding the total number of nuclear warheads and their delivery vehicles, even as the development of technologies (cyber weapons, space assets, nuclear modernization, AI) depends more on modern ethics, dictating to keep up with the times, than on formal agreements. 
• Cyber threats to command, control, communications and intelligence systems, and critical infrastructure (C3I) are a hot topic for bilateral discussion. Russia and the United States must agree to abandon cyber operations against nuclear command infrastructure and missile warning systems.

Please, access percenter.org for details regarding our assessment of U.S.-Russian dialogue on arms control and nonproliferation. You may find the text on the report to be presented via this link. The book’s table of contents and key findings can be found here.

Register here.

On all the matters regarding the event and PIR Center activities on arms control and nuclear nonproliferation you may reach out to “Nuclear Nonproliferation and Russia” program coordinator Sergey Semenov at semenov@pircenter.org . For media queries, please, reach out to Information & Publications coordinator Nikita Degtyarev at degtyarev@pircenter.org.