Theatrics in Tbilisi
The New York Times
THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005
It was heartwarming to see President George W. Bush welcomed warmly in
Riga, Latvia, and drawing huge crowds in Tbilisi, Georgia, but his trip through
the former Soviet Union scored high on public relations but zero on substance.
The one overriding American concern when it comes to Russia is nuclear security
and nonproliferation, and on that front, it appears nothing was accomplished.
Strong U.S. support for two of the most democratic former Soviet
republics is appropriate and welcome, although it cannot disguise the
precipitous decline in American relations with many of the larger countries of
Western Europe. But it is Russia, not Latvia or Georgia, that still has more
than 10,000 armed nuclear warheads and vast insecure stockpiles of nuclear bomb
fuel. And it is also Russia whose willingness to cajole and pressure Iran could
help dissuade that country from taking the few remaining steps needed for it to
become a nuclear weapons state.
The Moscow stop brought no significant new announcements on either
nuclear front, just elaborately orchestrated theatrics that were apparently
meant to show that despite Bush's anti-Moscow finger-pointing from beyond
Russia's borders, his strong personal bond with Putin remains intact. In fact,
the worrisomely authoritarian Putin seemed to come off rather better than the
incontestably democratic Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. In a lunge
at historical revisionism, Bush glibly took those great World War II leaders to
task for acceding to Stalin's power grabs in Eastern Europe that they were
militarily powerless to halt.
Previous meetings between Bush and Putin have yielded agreements on sharp
cuts in long-range nuclear-armed missiles and bombers. The last time they met,
in February, they announced an agreement to combat nuclear terrorism by
accelerating joint programs meant to secure poorly safeguarded Russian bomb
fuel.
What is needed now is final resolution of a dispute over liability that
threatens to hold up those vital nuclear security programs, along with joint
moves to take thousands of nuclear warheads off hair-trigger alert (Russia's
are increasingly vulnerable to a catastrophic accidental launching as its early
warning system continues to erode). The two nations should also proceed to
overdue reductions in tactical nuclear warheads, which are more easily stolen
or bartered than missile-mounted long-range warheads.
Measurable progress on these fronts would have been helpful to the
struggling Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference now under way in
New York, where nonnuclear nations are increasingly challenging the reluctance
of the major nuclear powers to reduce their weapons inventories. Any
presidential trip that skirted that issue has to be judged a failure. Still,
Bush is returning home with lots of politically priceless footage from Riga and
Tbilisi.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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