President Bush will entertain his Russian counterpart at Kennebunkport this weekend, and they have a lot to talk about. Putin is fresh off a meeting with Hugo Chavez–a good customer for conventional arms who’s kicking the tires on an Iran-style nuclear program. And while Putin’s Russia has become more cooperative in recent years in non-proliferation efforts, Chavez might be hoping to convince Putin that his oil money is just as good as Iran’s. The main building of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant,
which was built with Russian technology and expertise.
Somewhere between the ‘frank exchanges of views,’ Putin and Bush might find time to highlight an agreement on nuclear cooperation that the two nations will soon sign:
Presidents Bush and Putin set this agreement as a goal when they met at the G-8 in July, 2006. With the renewed attention to nuclear power in Washington, such an accord could go a long way to helping the United States catch up on fast reactor technology–an area where our long absence from ‘the nuclear game’ has left us far behind. Without a ‘123 agreement,’ only the most limited of exchanges are possible; that’s the reason nuclear power proponents rate this deal a priority. But backers also stress the value of the accord to non-proliferation efforts. They argue that Russia has made great strides and is working as an ally on Iran’s program. Part of the reason is that the U.S. held out this treaty as an incentive. If it goes into effect, Russia can become a repository of spent fuel from Taiwan and South Korea. That might reduce the amount of spent fuel available for reprocessing and use in nuclear weapons, and provide Russia with a new source of revenues, and one dependent on its ‘good behavior’ in the counter-proliferation world. Congress may yet prove a stumbling block, though. The US-Russia agreement can be blocked by a joint resolution of both Houses. And more directly, such an agreement could be specifically barred by the terms of the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which I wrote about here just a few days ago. That legislation would preclude bilateral cooperation agreements “with Russia or with any other countries assisting Iran’s nuclear or missile or advanced conventional weapons programmes.” Congress will get 90 days to assess the agreement after it’s signed. So once Bush wraps up his frank discussions with Putin, he may have to start a new round with Capitol Hill.
