Carnegie Moscow Center
The civil nuclear cooperation deal, or 123 agreement, will greatly improve the ability of both Russia and the United States to prevent proliferation and it will advance mutual interests, improve relations, and deliver on the promise of the reset.
As it negotiates the fate of New START, Washington should not lose sight of the importance of continued cooperation with Russia across a broad range of issues.
Joint efforts by Russia and the EU, or Russia and NATO, to mediate specific regional conflicts could help build up the trust necessary to form a solid foundation for a new European security architecture.
The results of the NATO summit in Lisbon, aimed at promoting cooperation between NATO and Russia, are a strong and useful platform for the continued transformation of the Russian-Western strategic relationship.
The Lisbon NATO summit is a critical event for making the Alliance between Europe and North America fit the security challenges of the twenty-first century.
A failure by the U.S. Senate to ratify New START before the end of the year may cause Moscow to doubt the U.S. commitment to improving ties with Russia and could put the reset in bilateral relations on hold.
Instead of helping Russia to transform itself, the reset between Russia and the West ultimately serves to legitimize the Russian system of personalized power and enable the preservation of the status quo.
The United States, Europe, and Russia have a crucial stabilizing role to play in the world, but they must begin by transforming the Euro-Atlantic space into a stronger, inclusive security community.
The recent U.S. midterm elections could mean delay or even reversal for the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda toward Russia, particularly on issues like New START, the “123 agreement” on civilian nuclear cooperation, and trade relations.
The U.S.-Russia reset is off to a solid beginning, but it is incomplete in many respects; while the countries have made good progress in their relationship, much remains to be done.