Clinton in Moscow on nuclear, Mideast talks

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will seek to speed up the signing of a new nuclear arms-control treaty and discuss the Middle East peace process when she arrives in Moscow Thursday.

President Dmitry Medvedev will meet Clinton tomorrow to discuss a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that expired in December. She will also attend a meeting of the Middle East Quartet group of the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia after Israel sparked controversy with plans to build new housing in east Jerusalem.

Clinton, on her second trip to Russia since taking office, presented her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with a red reset button a year ago to symbolize a fresh start to relations. Disagreement over the details of the new arms control accord has since put a strain on ties.

"Until the treaty is signed, nothing else in bilateral relations can move forward," said Pavel Baev, a professor at the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo. "Both sides invested a lot of effort and personal political capital. I think a compromise will be found."



Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev set the course for the new arms accord at a Moscow summit in July. Medvedev has since allowed U.S. military cargoes to transit Russian territory to Afghanistan and shown a willingness to support additional sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

"We`ve made a lot of progress and we certainly hope to make more, and the secretary`s involvement is extremely important in that regard," William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told reporters on Clinton`s plane en route to Moscow Thursday. "This is an opportunity" for Clinton "to try to push this along."

The Obama administration has succeeded in resetting the relationship with Russia, Burns said.

"At the beginning of 2010, if you look at the U.S.-Russian relationship, we`re in much more solid shape than we were at the beginning of 2009," he said.

The administration would like an accord to be signed before a Nuclear Security Summit in April that will bring together world leaders in Washington, and the review of the Non- Proliferation Treaty scheduled for May. Obama has spoken by phone to the Russian leader three times since January on the issue, U.S. government officials say.

The U.S. and Russian presidents agreed last year to a blueprint for a new treaty that would reduce nuclear warheads to between 1,500 and 1,675 and delivery vehicles to between 500 and 1,000. Further details of the protocol have been under negotiation since last April, with disagreements over how much verification should take place and over the placement of U.S. missile defense systems in Europe.

The Middle East Quartet group meets on March 19 after Israel`s announcement of plans to expand Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have stalled, and the U.S. and its partners have condemned the Israeli decision.

Clinton and Lavrov will be joined by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and the Quartet`s envoy Tony Blair, the former U.K. prime minister.

"There`s a good chance this meeting will focus more on Iran than the Middle East peace process," said Cliff Kupchan of New York-based Eurasia Group. "Clinton and the U.S. government are zoned in on Iran."

The U.S. and its European allies are pushing for additional UN sanctions against Iran to force the country back to negotiations over its nuclear program. The U.S., Britain and Russia make up half of the contact group with Iran. The other members are China, France and Germany. (Bloomberg)