U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on Secretary of State John Kerry’s call for further strategic nuclear reductions with Russia, Apr 28, 2015:
Sec Kerry's call for strategic nuclear reductions w/ #Russia would be a dangerously naïve nonstarter w/ US Senate: http://t.co/mNeOnhHcXt
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) 28 Квітень 2015
“In remarks yesterday before the 2015 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York City, Secretary Kerry stated President Obama’s ‘willingness,’ and ‘readiness’ ‘to engage and negotiate further reductions of deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third below the level set by New START.’
“Negotiating further strategic nuclear reductions with Russia would be a dangerously naïve non-starter with the U.S. Senate. It simply defies common sense to negotiate nuclear reductions with Vladimir Putin while Russia occupies Crimea, destabilizes Ukraine, and violates the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. As Russian aggression threatens the peace of Europe, the United States should focus on modernizing our nuclear deterrent to secure our national interests and protect our allies.
“Furthermore, calling for reductions only in strategic nuclear weapons while ignoring Russia’s large arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons is shortsighted. Russia has shown no interest in nuclear reductions. Rather, nuclear weapons have grown more prominent in Russian military doctrine as Vladimir Putin and others in his autocratic regime have issued countless nuclear threats against our allies.”
