Letter: Keep Arms Control Focus

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Your bracing description of the deterioration of relations between the United States and the Putin regime ("U.S.-Russian Ties Still Fall Short of 'Reset' Goal," front page, Sept. 3) doesn't change the fact that there are significant issues that leave the two countries no choice but to work together.

No. 1 on that list is nuclear arms control. It would be unacceptable for the two nations that together control roughly two-thirds of the world's deployed nuclear warheads to let differences on other issues keep them from engaging on nuclear arms reductions.

The spread of nuclear weapons is as much a threat to Russia as it is to the United States, as are remaining stocks of poorly secured nuclear bombs and bomb-making materials. And the ultimate threat — a nuclear conflict by design or, more likely, by accident — remains a possibility as long as both sides keep nuclear weapons on high alert.

At the height of the cold war the United States and the Soviet Union managed to keep open communications and conclude important agreements to control nuclear weapons. Leaders of the United States and Russia should be encouraged to do so now, even as sharp divisions over other issues persist.

WILLIAM D. HARTUNG
New York, Sept. 3, 2013

The writer is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.

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