U.S. And Russia Make History

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign a treaty next week to shrink their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds while allowing the United States to store rather than destroy some Cold War-era warheads.

"This treaty will liquidate the legacy of the Cold War," Mr. Bush said Monday in announcing the deal.

The treaty would limit the United States and Russia to 1,700 to 2,200 nuclear warheads apiece by 2012 — still enough to devastate major U.S. and Russian cities many times over.

The United States now has about 6,000 strategic nuclear weapons, Russia about 5,500.

The treaty, which must be approved by the Senate, will be signed next week when Mr. Bush visits Putin in Moscow.

It will be shorter than usual — about three pages, compared with the inches-thick agreements of the past — and will give both nations wide latitude in deciding how to reduce their stockpiles.

"We are satisfied with the joint work," Putin said after Mr. Bush's announcement. "Without the interested, active position of the American administration and the attention of President Bush, it would have been difficult to reach such agreements."

Agreement on arms cuts is the lowest hurdle in U.S.-Russian relations; both leaders were eager to trim weapons costs and cast themselves as peacemakers. Tougher issues remain, such as Mr. Bush's plans for an anti-missile system and Russia's spread of nuclear technology.

The White House predicted approval by the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate, though Democrats were raising questions.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said he hoped his committee would begin hearings on the comprehensive agreement within the next few months.

"Once this treaty is formally submitted, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will approach it as we have all other arms control agreements, asking some basic questions," said the Delaware Democrat.

"Will this treaty make the United States more secure? Will it reduce the danger of nuclear war? Will it stand the test of time?" Biden said.

Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the House Energy Committee, praised the proposed warhead cuts but objected to a Bush-backed provision allowing both countries to store warheads after taking them out of commission.

Mr. Bush and Putin "should reach an agreement to destroy these weapons, not put them in a garage" where they can be quickly retrieved, Markey said.

The provision allows Washington and Moscow to keep warheads readily at hand in case U.S.-Russian relations sour or either country feels threatened by another nuclear power, such as China.

Mr. Bush announced the agreement with no fanfare, stopping at a row of TV cameras as he left on a political trip to Illinois.

"It will make the world more peaceful," he said.

The president will sign the treaty May 24 at the opening of a weeklong European trip that will conclude with a stop in Paris to watch NATO and Russia enter into a new alliance. Spokesman Ari Fleischer called the two events "the perfect bookends" to a presidential trip.

The timing of Mr. Bush's announcement was a surprise, because most observers had expected him to wait for the Moscow summit to break the news.

But the deal itself was expected, a product of Mr. Bush's pledge as a presidential candidate two years ago to reduce U.S. nuclear stockpiles regardless of Russia's intentions. He had hoped to bolster his foreign policy credentials with American voters and ease concerns in Russia about his plans to develop an anti-missile shield.

Putin had suggested reductions to 1,500 warheads each, because his nation could no longer afford to maintain the Cold War-sized stockpiles.

One sticking point had been Russia's objections to U.S. plans for storing some of the nuclear weapons rather than destroying them. The American position apparently prevailed; a senior administration official said some U.S. weapons will be destroyed, some put in "deep storage" and others will be stored but kept as "operational spares."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia also is likely to keep some weapons.

In Moscow, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters that Russia had not dropped its objections to the idea of stockpiling warheads. He did not elaborate.

In a victory for Putin, the president dropped his desire for an informal agreement and will sign a treaty. He had hoped to avoid Senate consideration.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a disarmament group, said the treaty will probably pass the Senate.

"I believe there will be a number of questions raised by Democrats and Republicans about verification measures and about what this treaty will accomplish," he said.

Verification procedures in the 1991 U.S.-Russian Start I treaty such as on-site inspections — will apply to the new deal, though they will not be spelled out in the treaty, the senior official said.