The United States has signalled its apparent abandonment of the goal of nuclear disarmament "for the foreseeable future" as it embarked on a quest for a new generation of nuclear warheads.
Although the term "nuclear disarmament" quietly disappeared from the Bush administration's vocabulary long ago, the statement by Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, marked the first time a top government official publicly acknowledged a goal enshrined in key international documents will no longer be pursued.
"The United States will, for the foreseeable future, need to retain both nuclear forces and the capabilities to sustain and modernise those forces," Brooks stated on Friday as he addressed the East Tennessee Economic Council in the city of Oak Ridge, which is home to a major nuclear weapons complex.
"The end of the Cold War did not end the importance of nuclear weapons," continued the chief steward of the US nuclear weapons programme. "I do not see any chance of the political conditions for abolition arising in my lifetime, nor do I think abolition could be verified if it were negotiated."
The acknowledgement represents a departure from commitments given by previous US administrations to their negotiating partners and the international community at large.
In September 1998, then-presidents Bill Clinton of the United States and Boris Yeltsin of Russia signed a joint statement, in which they reaffirmed the two countries' commitment to "the ultimate goal of nuclear disarmament".
In addition, unambiguous disarmament clauses are contained in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed in 1968 by all leading nuclear powers of that era, including the United States, and now used to rein in the nuclear ambitions of countries like Iran and North Korea.
In the preamble to the accord, the signatories agreed "to facilitate the cessation of the manufacture of nuclear weapons, the liquidation of all their existing stockpiles, and the elimination from national arsenals of nuclear weapons and the means of their delivery."
They reaffirmed their commitment to nuclear disarmament in more binding language in the treaty's Article VI, which states that "each of the parties to the treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament."
Brooks made the remarks as he showcased the administration's plan to modernise the nation's nuclear arsenal to make it more durable and reliable. Under the Moscow Treaty signed in May 2002, President George W. Bush committed the United States to reducing its arsenal of operationally-deployed strategic nuclear weapons to between 1,700 to 2,200 warheads by December 2012. But experts are concerned the mainstay of the current arsenal, the W-76 warhead, is deteriorating in storage and may soon lose its reliability.
Bush requested 27.7 million dollars from Congress earlier this year to develop the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead.
Its technical characteristics are highly classified. But Brooks said that the new warhead would have the same military value and delivery systems while being more reliable, secure and easier to maintain. US scientists are also studying the feasibility of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a new type of nuclear weapon capable of destroying hardened underground targets.
Brooks rejected the notion the new nuclear weapons programmes undercut efforts to advance global non-proliferation.
He insisted that countries like Iran or North Korea "are reacting more to US conventional weapons superiority than to anything we have done or are doing in the nuclear weapons arena." The official also declared the US nuclear posture to be "entirely consistent with our international obligations."
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