"The main goal of my visit to Moscow, said Mr. Rademaker, is to discuss arms control issues as well as the progress of the Moscow Strategic Potentials Reduction Treaty and the START-1.
The USA has provided the agenda of these forums with a number of new proposals regarding prohibition of fissionable materials production as well as production and export of unliftable mines, and the American side was interested in hearing the opinion of the Russian counterparts on these initiatives.
During the meetings with his Russian counterparts Mr. Rademaker paid great attention to the adjusted Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) and the conditions, which should ensure its ratification by most of the parties to this document as well as to deployment of the U.S. national missile defense. The U.S. deputy secretary of state briefed the reporters that Russia within the framework of START-1 had brought to the attention of the USA the main performances of new Bulava sea-based strategic missile, which had recently been tested in the northern seas. But the dialog over its compliance with the fundamental provisions of this treaty will be resumed within the framework of the Geneva conference, he noted.
The most topical questions that the deputy secretary of state was asked during the press conference related to the future of the CFE Treaty: "Has this treaty lost its significance against the background of the recent dramatic changes in Europe? Why are NATO states not ready to ratify it, although Russia has already done it?".
Mr. Rademakers response was rather traditional: "Our countries are not ready to do it because Russia has not fulfilled its commitments undertaken in 1999 during signing of the adjusted treaty in Istanbul. There Russia promised to withdraw its troops from Moldavia and sign an agreement with Georgia on the terms of withdrawing its troops from that country. Neither one thing nor the other has been done over the last five years". "The United States is ready to back the process by its own means, said the deputy secretary of state, and we are wondering why there is no progress here".
Mr. Rademaker also repeated Washington's position on Russia's concerns over the "grey zones" in the Baltic states, which had not joined the CFE Treaty, which means that any amount of heavy armaments, not subject to international control, may be deployed on their territory.
"They can not sign the treaty, said the deputy secretary of state, because prior to its ratification by most of the participants it does not exist de-facto". As soon as Russia fulfils its Istanbul commitments, the Baltic states, as they have repeatedly stated, will join the document.
The deputy secretary of state confirmed the readiness of his country to unconditionally adhere to the commitments undertaken within the Moscow Strategic Potentials Reduction Treaty. Before 2012, he said, we have reduced our Peacekeeper intercontinental missiles and three Trident submarines. As for stowing or disposing of the nuclear warheads dismounted from undeployed missiles, no treaty between the USA and the USSR or the USA and Russia mentions it, he pointed out. Inspection of these warheads constitutes a very complicated problem, therefore this issue is left outside bilateral accords.
Mr. Rademaker also voiced U.S. concerns over Iran's nuclear missile programs. "According to the information that we have, Iran supports international terrorist organizations, and if they catch hold of nuclear materials, the horrors of in New York and Beslan would seem childish jokes", he said. Although the reporters did not hear a word on how reliable the information about Tehran's links with terrorists was. But the U.S. representative referred to the presence of ballistic missiles in Iran explaining deployment of national missile defense elements in Alaska and other regions of his country as well as the endeavor to deploy such systems on the territory of some European states, with whom Washington was holding negotiations with this regard.
