Russian Ambassador on the Current State of U.S.-Russia Relations

MOSCOW, 16 SEPTEMBER 2009. PIR PRESS
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"To conclude START replacement talks by December 5 is a formidable task, but the two presidents have clearly indicated their willingness to do so. We have different asymmetries, but both sides want to achieve an equal sense of security."
— Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the United States of America Sergey Kislyak is a good friend of the PIR Center and one of the contributors to our journal. This time editor-in-chief of the Security Index journal Vladimir Orlov and Sergey Kislyak met in California, in Monterey. The Russian ambassador visited this nonproliferation capital of the United States to speak to the students and professors of the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. The discussion was held by William Potter, CNS Director and PIR Center's Executive Board member.

In his interview the Russian ambassador touches upon the current state of the U.S.-Russian relations, speaks about the prospects for the new strategic offensive arms reduction treaty, dwells on the issues of non-strategic nuclear weapons and the nuclear program of Iran.

"A pretty unique area where we have been working together with the United States and Europe, during even the most difficult times of the Cold War is nonproliferation. The ups and downs in our political relations did not affect our work in this area. I think that is a living proof that there are important security issues where the long-term core interests of the United States and Russia coincide. We had to learn to cooperate - it doesn't mean that we didn't have differences on how to best achieve the goals that we shared. But at the same time, we have never interrupted the channels of communication on this issue. Even during the crises that we have lived through. It's something that needs to be built upon in the future,"
— Sergey Kislyak believes.

Based on this culture of compromises, it will be easier to achieve consensus on strategic offensive arms. But the negotiations are still tough.

"Each and every small issue for the negotiators is a big issue for the General Staff of the Russian Federation or the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So part of the issue is to discuss what is sensible and important, and this is the additional task of the negotiators. At the same time it is a not a treaty that will be started out from scratch. All of the things that were developed in term of procedures to destroy, in terms of inspections for the purposes of START, have been tested already. And in some respect we have developed a culture of working together to implement START,"
— Kislyak says.

The full text of the interview will be published in the international edition of the Security Index journal, No. 1, Winter 2010. You can also find it on the PIR Center Website.