UK and France sign landmark defence agreements

At the UK-France summit in London earlier today, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy issued a declaration and signed a formal Defence Treaty that signalled a new era of defence cooperation. Letters of intent were exchanged and a Road Map agreed for deeper cooperation in the future. Three years in the making, the arrangement focuses on joint capabilities and procurement, but also to a limited extent, operations. There are two areas of specific note in the nuclear field:

Nuclear Security after the Washington Summit

The Washington summit on nuclear security delivered some positive outcomes. But it is imperative that states do not now become complacent; there is much still left to do to ensure that nuclear weapons and material do not fall into the wrong hands. The ultimate gauge of the summit’s success will be whether actions now follow words. Published originally in the RUSI Journal, June/July 2010, Vol. 155, No. 3.

To view the entire article, please select “Full article (PDF)” below.

START expiration ends U.S. inspection of Russian nuclear bases

This Washington Post article by Mary Beth Sheridan recounts how the United States has lost the ability to peek into the Russian nuclear arsenal because the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), along with its accompanying verification measures, expired without a replacement in force.

Read the full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081605422.html?wprss=rss_politics/congress

U.K.’s ‘special relationship’ with U.S. under microscope at G8

“The British and the British media have to be very careful in shouting too loudly about this. It's America's worst environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf, and if you are too defensive about this the mud sticks.”

BASIC Executive Director Paul Ingram quoted in the Times Colonist. Read more:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/special+relationship+with+under+microscope/3181535/story.html

British lapdog gets ready to be set loose

“The big shift in this relationship has been the election of Obama, which has been basically a shift away from traditional alliances and towards reaching out to new relationships around the world.”

BASIC Executive Director Paul Ingram quoted in RT News.

The nuclear summit papers

The Guardian's Julian Borger blogs on Washington's Nuclear Security Summit and cites BASIC Research Director Dr. Ian Kearns's new paper: Keeping the Lid On: Nuclear Security and the Washington Summit.

Obama cuts US nuclear arsenal – but keeps sights trained on Iran

“Obviously it is to be welcomed that the US will not develop new nuclear warheads despite pressure from the weapons labs, and that President Obama has won the argument over his core policy of limiting the use of nuclear weapons.”

BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh quoted in The Independent on the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review.

Read more:

Russia hails agreement on nuclear arms treaty

”If you look at the actual treaty, they are not going to be cutting up weapons. They are just not going to be deployed. It is quite a modest treaty. It is important in what it says about US-Russian relations. It is a signal of the tangible improvement.”

BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald.