At an informal briefing today, journalists were informed by senior government officials that the \’Initial Gate\’ decision involving the replacement of Trident, the United Kingdom\’s nuclear weapons system, will be delayed until after the NPT Review Conference next year. Paul Ingram, Executive Director of BASIC commented:
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Top diplomatic editor to head BASIC team in Washington
Anne Penketh has covered diplomatic and disarmament issues in the US, nuclear weapon states, Iran and North Korea
BASIC is pleased to announce that Anne Penketh, long-time Diplomatic Editor at The Independent in London, will be leading BASIC\’s Washington team working to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Anne is an international journalist who has covered diplomatic and disarmament issues for many years with first hand, on-the-ground experience of the US, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Paul Ingram, Executive Director of BASIC, says:
Majority of UK voters now against Trident replacement
I have no doubt that the latest opinion poll published this evening by the Guardian reflects the significant media coverage that Trident replacement has seen recently, as well as the cracking of the ranks at the very top of all three principal parties around replacement. This is very encouraging for those looking for public interest in the recent discussions over moves towards a world free of nuclear weapons:
Britain ready to put Trident on the table
PM announcement at G8 Summit
Gordon Brown announced today in Italy at the G8 Summit his willingness to put Britain\’s nuclear arsenal on the table in negotiations at Obama\’s nuclear summit next March. Paul Ingram, BASIC\’s Executive Director said: “This very concrete offer from the UK is clearly designed to create a spirit of multilateral cooperation between the nuclear weapon states in advance of the NPT Review Conference. It is to be strongly welcomed and we hope that other nuclear weapon states can respond accordingly.”
Full text of Joint Understanding for START follow-on released
As a follow up to the July 6 announcement on the START Follow-on Treaty, today the White House provided the full text of the Joint Understanding (JU) between Russia and the United States.
The JU acknowledges prominent areas of difficulty related to missile defense and conventional warheads on strategic delivery vehicles by calling for:
START follow-on: Reductions – not radical optimists – can focus on limits
In conjunction with the Obama-Medvedev Summit in Moscow today, the United States and Russia reached a Joint Understanding (White House press release) for establishing new limitations on the number of strategic nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles under the START Follow-on Treaty.
START follow-on negotiations: Russians focus on delivery vehicles
An announcement on the US/Russian negotiations is expected at July's summit between Obama and Medvedev.