President Obama conceded on Friday that despite global progress toward denuclearization during his tenure, pushing back the Doomsday Clock will require Russian cooperation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin skipped this week’s final Nuclear Security Summit in Washington and has been unwilling to make new commitments toward reducing Moscow’s stockpile.
Russia completed the START II treaty, after which “I approached the Russians, our team approached the Russians, in terms of looking at a next phase for arms reductions,” Obama recounted in remarks Friday night after the fourth nuclear reduction summit in Washington.
“Because Mr. Putin came into power, or returned to his office as president, and because of the vision that he’s been pursuing of emphasizing military might over development inside of Russia and diversifying the economy, we have not seen the kind of progress that I would have hoped for with Russia,” Obama said.
Obama said that through summits like today’s, there is now an international system for further reducing the global nuclear cache when Russia is ready to negotiate.
“[I]t is very difficult to see huge reductions in our nuclear arsenal unless the United States and Russia, as the two largest possessors of nuclear weapons, are prepared to lead the way,” Obama acknowledged.
