Nuclear disarmament is one of the main issues Barack Obama is addressing during his visit to Russia this week. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, Munich Security Conference head Wolfgang Ischinger argues that the dream of a nuclear arms-free world need not remain an illusion. Hiroshima, Japan, after the world's first attack with a nuclear bomb in 1945: Is a world free of nuclear weapons possible? SPIEGEL ONLINE: US President Obama is in Moscow right now for his first formal summit with Russian President Medvedev. At the close of the trip, an agreement on further nuclear disarmament is expected. How important are these talks if you take into account the fact that the current nuclear threats are more likely to come from other corners of the world? Ischinger: The negotiations between the USA and Russia over a successor treaty to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) are of great importance. The two countries possess 96 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. Russia has 2,700 deployable nuclear warheads; the US has 2,200. I assume that this summit will set the course for a dramatic reduction of these weapons.
Nuclear disarmament is one of the main issues Barack Obama is addressing during his visit to Russia this week. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, Munich Security Conference head Wolfgang Ischinger argues that the dream of a nuclear arms-free world need not remain an illusion.
Hiroshima, Japan, after the world's first attack with a nuclear bomb in 1945: Is a world free of nuclear weapons possible?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: US President Obama is in Moscow right now for his first formal summit with Russian President Medvedev. At the close of the trip, an agreement on further nuclear disarmament is expected. How important are these talks if you take into account the fact that the current nuclear threats are more likely to come from other corners of the world?
Ischinger: The negotiations between the USA and Russia over a successor treaty to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) are of great importance. The two countries possess 96 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. Russia has 2,700 deployable nuclear warheads; the US has 2,200. I assume that this summit will set the course for a dramatic reduction of these weapons.
Even now in the UK we know we cannot afford the new generation of nuclear missile, we know there is no need for it, we know there is no possible enemy to justify it, yet still our pols demand that it remain essential to Britain's defence. What they really mean is they are necessary to shore up the belief systems that sustains their sense of importance. keep to the Fen Causeway
