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2010 to be key year in fight against nuclear arms | Reuters
In April, U.S. President Barack Obama declared in a speech in Prague that the United States was committed "to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons." In September he chaired a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that unanimously supported this vision.
Analysts and Western government officials say Obama's ability to begin delivering on his promise will be tested next year when Moscow and Washington resume haggling on an arms reduction pact and again at a key U.N. nuclear arms conference in May.
They say success of a month-long review of the troubled 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will depend largely on whether U.S. and Russian negotiators can first agree on a successor pact to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
Yearender: U.S. power diplomacy loses steam in first year _English_Xinhua
The power diplomacy of the United States has sensed in the past year that the country's diplomatic drive is losing steam to mostly unintended practice leaks and a few intentional policy picks.
The power -- hard, soft, or smart -- was stretched too thin by concurrent maneuvers in Baghdad, Beijing, Brussels, Copenhagen, Geneva, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Kabul, Moscow, New York, Pyongyang and Tehran, to list just a few hotspots where Americans had been busy mending rather than making diplomacy.
"(George W.) Bush's (hard power) foreign policy left the United States weaker. The new administration must work more closely with allies, friends, and multilateral institutions than Bush did in dealing with the problems," Joseph Nye, who coined the term "soft power" in 1990, asserted.
To the Harvard scholar, soft power is the ability to get what one wants through attraction, whereas hard power is to get it through coercion.
U.S. hails Emirates nuclear deal as model | Reuters
The United States formally signed a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, hailing it as a "new bargain" that could help prevent the spread of dangerous atomic technology.
Stocks
"This is a new bargain for the Middle East region and the United States welcomes and applauds the UAE's decision," Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary for arms control, said at the signing ceremony.
The pact, which President Barack Obama approved in May and sent to Congress for a 90-day review period, is potentially worth billions of dollars to General Electric Co (GE.N) and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp (6502.T).
Russia looks beyond U.S. to conquer uranium markets | Reuters
* Russian supplies to keep filling global supply gap
* Russia seeks lucrative direct deals with U.S. firms
* Eyes China, India and other markets
* Uranium mines to expand production
By Robin Paxton
MOSCOW, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Nearly one in 10 U.S. households runs on power from Soviet nuclear bombs.
Now Russia hopes its Cold War arsenal, twinned with fast-growing uranium mines and enrichment capacity, will also be powering China, India and other booming economies when a 20-year nuclear fuel pact with the United States expires in 2013.
Russia has expressed no desire to refresh the 'Megatons to Megawatts' programme, under which it will recycle the equivalent of 20,000 nuclear warheads and create enough uranium to power the entire United States for two years.
OpEdNews - Article: NATO's Secret Transatlantic Bond: Nuclear Weapons In Europe
"Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and German pilots remain ready to engage in nuclear war."
"Nuclear forces based in Europe and committed to NATO provide an essential political and military link between the European and the North American members of the Alliance. The Alliance will therefore maintain adequate nuclear forces in Europe.”
“Although technically owned by the U.S., nuclear bombs stored at NATO bases are designed to be delivered by planes from the host country.”
"The Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of State, should engage its appropriate counterparts among NATO Allies in reassessing and confirming the role of nuclear weapons in Alliance strategy and policy for the future."
Lack of land adds to U.S. atomic firms' India worries | Top News | Reuters
U.S nuclear firms said on Monday they were worried land scarcity in India could further delay a joint atomic deal already hobbled by policy holdups over issues such as accident liability protection.
A 50-member U.S. business delegation this week is seeking to push the implementation of the deal, which promises to open up India's multi-billion-dollar nuclear market to American firms.
U.S. firms already worry over delays such as writing a new Indian law to limit U.S. firms' liability in case of an industrial accident and differences over a fuel reprocessing pact. Recent protests over land acquisition for building reactors has added to their uncertainty.
India and the United States signed a civilian nuclear deal last year, ending India's nuclear isolation since it tested a nuclear device in 1974 and opening up its atomic market for firms such as General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric Co, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba Corp.
AFP: US, Russia uphold 'spirit' of expiring nuclear pact
Washington and Moscow pledged Friday to uphold the "spirit" of the START nuclear arms treaty and to seek a new agreement as soon as possible, hours before the landmark 1991 pact was to expire.
US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said in a joint statement they would keep pushing for nuclear disarmament, despite failing to cut a last-minute deal by the treaty's December 5 expiration date.
"We express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the START Treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date," the statement said.
The Obama administration had pushed hard for a new START agreement as part of its efforts to improve strained US ties with Russia, but disputes over US monitoring of Russian missiles had bogged down talks in recent weeks.
Secret pacts on Okinawa | The Japan Times Online
For the first time, a former high-ranking diplomat testified in court on Tuesday that secret pacts existed between Japan and the United States over the May 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan.
On behalf of a group of citizens seeking disclosure of three diplomatic documents related to the reversion, Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, former director of the Foreign Ministry's American Bureau, told the Tokyo District Court that the two countries concluded secret pacts under which Japan agreed to shoulder the burden of not only $16 million to move a Voice of America relay station abroad, but also $4 million that the U.S. was supposed to pay to help restore U.S. military areas to farmland.
Medvedev, Obama discuss new arms reduction pact | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
The Russian and U.S. presidents discussed a new bilateral arms reduction treaty in a phone conversation on Monday, the Kremlin said.
Moscow and Washington are negotiating a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), the basis for Russian-U.S. strategic nuclear disarmament, which expires on December 5.
Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama "touched on issues of future cooperation between Russia and the United States in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan, and also discussed progress in preparing a new treaty on strategic arms reduction," the Kremlin said.
An outline of the new pact was agreed during a summit held by Obama and Medvedev in Moscow in July, and includes cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.
Obama also conveyed his condolences to the families of those killed in last Friday's terrorist attack on a train travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
A total of 26 people have been confirmed dead following the derailment of several carriages of the Nevsky Express, and two remain unaccounted for.
JAPAN – UNITED STATES Secret nuclear deals between Tokyo and Washington | Spero News
For decades, the authorities have denied that nuclear weapons were present in Japan; yet it allowed United States to stockpile and transport them on Japanese soil. The credibility of the Liberal Democratic Party, now in the opposition, sinks further.
Tokyo – The people of Japan was deceived for decades, this according to declassified documents that are only now coming to light about secret deals between Washington and Tokyo with regards to the presence of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. Since 1960, the government led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has repeatedly denied that nuclear weapons were ever present in Japan or that any agreement existed to that effect.
In mid-October, the National Security Archives in Washington released declassified telegrams, background papers and top-secret minutes regarding US nuclear weapons policy in Okinawa and, more broadly, Japan between the 1950s and 1972. Information about secret deals comes from this source, but it is neither the only nor the main one.
The ‘secret’ US-Japan pact with loaded content — William Choong
Most visitors to Japan, this writer included, are usually impressed by the politeness of the Japanese. Taxi drivers are not gruff, department store staff bow, hotel porters try their best to help.
In this light, the country's former Foreign Minister Sunao Sonoda was rather un-Japanese when he denounced Dr Edwin Reischauer, America's envoy to Tokyo in the 1960s, a figure who was widely respected in Japan.
In 1981, Reischauer had spoken of a secret pact between the United States and Japan, whereby nuclear-armed US ships were allowed into Japan. This defied Japan's cherished “three 'no's” — that it shall not produce, possess or introduce nuclear arms.
“I have never met Dr Reischauer,” Sonoda told the Japanese Diet. “But he is an uncalled-for meddler who pokes his nose into matters that are absolutely none of his business.”
Nearly 30 years later, the issue of the secret pact has popped up again.
Japan says it will soon release details of nuclear pact with U.S. - washingtonpost.com
Japan's new government, already bickering with the United States about the location of a Marine air station on Okinawa, appears intent on revealing evidence of a decades-old secret pact between Tokyo and Washington that allowed U.S. ships and aircraft to carry nuclear weapons on stopovers in Japan.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said that the investigation is in its final stages and that its findings will be announced in January. "We'll be unburdening ourselves of the insistence of past governments that a secret agreement did not exist," Okada said in a speech last weekend.
The pact violates a Japanese law that prohibits nuclear weapons from being made, possessed or stored on its territory. But disclosure of the 1960s-era agreement is hardly new. In general outline, its existence has been known for years because of declassified U.S. government documents.
Japan plans to expose secret U.S. pact - UPI.com
The details of a secret agreement with the United States allowing nuclear weapons in Japan will be released in January, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada says.
Okada said the government's investigation of the pact is almost complete, The Washington Post reported.
"We'll be unburdening ourselves of the insistence of past governments that a secret agreement did not exist," Okada said in a speech Saturday.
U.S., Russia study ways to extend START verification | Politics | Reuters
U.S. negotiators working to conclude a new strategic arms treaty with Russia are discussing ways to continue nuclear weapons monitoring until the new accord can be ratified, a State Department spokesman said on Monday.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed in July to work on a new treaty that would cut their deployed strategic nuclear arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads.
Japan Finds Documents Indicating Secret Nuclear Pact, NHK Says - Bloomberg.com
Japan’s government has discovered documents indicating the existence of a secret agreement allowing the U.S. to transport nuclear weapons through its territory, public broadcaster NHK reported on its Web site.
The government will set up a panel of experts to examine the documents and will announce the findings early next year, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said yesterday, according to NHK.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Cooper in Tokyo at ccooper1@bloomberg.net
WPR Article | Global Insights: The Great Nuclear Wall of China
Although nuclear arms control is not likely to be a major agenda item during President Barack Obama's visit to China, it should be. One of the obstacles facing the president as he seeks to realize the ambitious goals endorsed by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is the need to transform the primarily bilateral strategic arms control relationship inherited from the Cold War into one that places greater emphasis on multilateral frameworks.
Although Moscow and Washington have made progress in negotiating a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that expires this December, other nuclear weapons states must also join this reduction process, which thus far has been almost exclusively a Russian-American affair.
Can America defend its nuclear arsenal? | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
US intelligence agencies knew months before the November 05 Fort Hood shooting that suspect Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan tried to contact people with Al-Qaeda links, ABC News reported November 09, citing two US officials. However, it was unclear if the US Army had been informed.
Having read the above news, I wonder if Seymour Hersh is thinking to use his acid soaked pen to write another article about the insecurity of American nukes since members of the American military of Muslim faith are allegedly in touch, or were trying to get in touch, with Al-Qaeda. Here's a unique glimpse of what he may write.
IEA says no emissions deal will double bills - Telegraph
The independent body said the huge price of tackling climate change will eventually be overtaken by the cost of remaining dependent on fossil fuels, which are becoming more difficult and expensive to extract.
It estimates that Europe's annual energy bill will more than double to $500bn (£300bn) by 2030, as the oil price is likely to reach $100 per barrel by 2015 and $190 by 2030.
Publishing its annual World Energy Outlook, the IEA was also forced to defend its reputation as the world's leading provider of statistics on fossil fuels, following claims that it exaggerated oil resources under pressure from the US.
Electricity for Americans From Russia’s Old Nuclear Weapons - NYTimes.com
What’s powering your home appliances?
Multiple warhead ballistic missiles like the ones deployed at this site north of Russia's border with Kazakhstan are being dismantled. Some nuclear material goes to the United States.
For about 10 percent of electricity in the United States, it’s fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, including Russian ones.
“It’s a great, easy source” of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Capital and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war.
But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn’t secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers.
Already nervous about a supply gap, utilities operating America’s 104 nuclear reactors are paying as much attention to President Obama’s efforts to conclude a new arms treaty as the Nobel Peace Prize committee did.
Moscow says too soon to scrap nuclear weapons | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
Russia has no plans to completely abandon nuclear weapons, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
"If there were only five nuclear powers in the world and they abandoned their nuclear weapons, after which only conventional weapons - muskets, cannons, and pistols - would remain, we would have disarmed ourselves a long time ago," Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after a meeting with his British counterpart David Miliband in Moscow.
He added that there were unofficial nuclear powers, and that it was not ruled out that nuclear technology, which "is virtually available via the Internet," would spread.
He stressed the importance of nonproliferation efforts and said that nuclear disarmament "means many things, including practical agreements that will prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology anywhere in the world."
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