Nuclear extortion: Trump admin stalls US-Russia treaty talks, threatening new arms race

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

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4.7 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate The Trump administration is running out the clock on talks with Russia over renewing New START, the last treaty limiting the nuclear weapons arsenals of both countries. Russia has proposed an unconditional extension, but the US has stalled the talks and demanded new conditions -- even issuing an ultimatum that the "price of admission" will go up after the November U.S. election. "This is very dangerous," says Tom Collina, Director of Policy of the Ploughshares Fund. "If we don't get the treaty extended, if we let it expire, both sides could then expand their nuclear forces, make the world less safe, increase the risk of nuclear war, and potentially cause both countries to spend trillions of dollars more on expanding their nuclear arsenal." “Unfortunately what we're seeing right now is the Trump administration is simply not serious about extending the treaty — they're playing games with it. The Trump administration is saying to Russia, ‘agree to our terms before the election so we can get a political bump out of this. And if you don't agree to our terms — which by the way are unreasonable — if you don't agree to our terms the price will go up after the election.' So it's kind of an extortion racket — it's not a serious way to conduct international negotiations.” Guest: Tom Collina, Director of Policy of the Ploughshares Fund and co-author of the book, "The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump," with former US Secretary of Defense William Perry.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Pushback. I'm Aaron Mate. Talks between the U.S. and Russia over extending New Start,
0:09.5	the last remaining treaty that limits the nuclear weapon stockpiles of both countries are at an impasse.
0:17.0	Russia has proposed extending new start unconditionally for five years, while the U.S. wants a shorter time period with new conditions.
0:25.6	In a recent interview, the top U.S. negotiator, Marshall Billingsley, issued an ultimatum, telling Russia that the price of admission for a new treaty will go up unless Russia agrees to U.S. terms before the
0:40.3	November election. Well, joining me is Tom Colina. He is director of policy of the Plow Shares
0:46.0	Fund, co-author of the new book, The Button, The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power,
0:52.4	from Truman to Trump, co-authored with former U.S. Secretary
0:56.1	of Defense, William Perry.
0:58.5	Tom, welcome to pushback.
0:59.7	Aaron, great to be here.
1:00.7	Thanks for having me.
1:02.8	For people who are not familiar with New Start, can you talk about what is at stake with these
1:08.6	talks on its renewal and your assessment of the impasse between the
1:12.5	U.S. and Russia right now? Sure. The New START Treaty is part of a long bipartisan tradition
1:19.1	between the United States and Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, to reduce their nuclear forces.
1:26.1	It started 50 years ago with bilateral reductions
1:30.9	supported both by Republican and Democratic administrations. This latest treaty, the New Star Treaty,
1:38.4	was negotiated by the Obama administration with a 10-year duration. That ends in February. And if the treaty is allowed to
1:48.9	expire, this would be the first time in about 50 years that there have been no limitations on
1:55.4	U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear weapons of the type that could get from Russia to here.
2:02.6	And this is very dangerous.
2:04.6	If we don't let get the treaty extended, if we let it expire,
	...

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