New start 新的开端

IT HAS been a good week for Barack Obama. After passing his long-awaited health care bill, he has now struck an equally long-awaited deal with Russia to reduce the two countries’ nuclear stockpiles. On Friday March 26th he announced that Russia"s president, Dmitri Medvedev, had agreed to a follow-on treaty to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was signed in 1991 and expired last December. The new deal will cut both countries" arsenals by about a third from the maximum that would have been allowed under a deal struck in 2002 between George Bush and Russia"s then-president, Vladimir Putin. The new deal will cut the countries" arsenals to 1,550 deployed warheads each and 700 delivery systems (intercontinental land-based missiles, submarine-based missiles and strategic bombers).

对奥巴马来说这个星期真是让他高兴。在期盼已久的医保改革议案得到通过后，他现在又与俄罗斯达成了同样让人望眼欲穿的削减两国核武储备的协议。3月26日，星期五，他宣布俄罗斯总统德米特里•梅德韦杰夫已同意了一项削减战略武器条约（START）的后续条约。削减战略武器条约是1991年签署的，去年12月已经到期。根据这项新达成的协议，俄美两国将在2002年乔治•布什和俄罗斯时任总统普京达成的协议所允许的武器上限上将各自的核武库削减约三分之一。按照新达成的协议，两国将各自的核武库裁减至1550枚部署的核弹头和700套运载工具（包括陆基洲际导弹，潜基导弹和战略轰炸机）。

It had been widely expected, but is welcome nonetheless. Russia has been keen to cut the cost of maintaining its large stockpile of nuclear weapons and Mr Obama has talked about getting eventually to a world free of all nuclear weapons. The treaty must next be ratified in Russia"s Duma and in America"s Senate, in the latter case with 67 votes of 100. But in America it should not be a partisan issue. Mr Obama noted positive discussions he has had with leading senators of both parties on the foreign-affairs committee, John Kerry, the Democrat, and the Republican ranking member, Richard Lugar. The White House addressed a potential sticking point, saying the new deal does not place any limits on testing, development or deployment of current or planned America missile-defence programmes. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, expressed the hope that Russia would co-operate with a redesigned missile-defence system in Europe. Russia was pleased at the inclusion of language referring to the clear relationship between offensive systems and missile defence.

它未出外界的普遍预期，但仍然受到欢迎。俄罗斯一直焦急地企盼能够将维持其庞大的核武库的开支降下来，而奥巴马也曾谈过最终实现无核世界的愿望。该条约接下来还必须获得俄罗斯国家杜马和美国参议院的批准，在美国参议院，还必须获得67%的赞同票。但在美国这不会是一个党派的问题。奥巴马表示他已同两党在外交事务委员会的重要成员——民主党的克里和共和党的资深参议员理查德•卢格，进行了积极的讨论。白宫发言人提到了潜在的症结，在这个新的协议中没有对现有或计划中的美国导弹防御系统的试验、研究和部署作出任何限制。国防部长罗伯特•盖茨表示，希望俄罗斯能够在重新规划的欧洲导弹防御系统上给与合作。这句话中暗指了进攻性武器与导弹防御系统间存在明确的关联，这使俄罗斯感到高兴。

Progress over nuclear-weapons cuts could help to warm relations between America and Russia which had deteriorated badly in the later Bush years, particularly over a planned American missile shield for Central Europe. Mr Obama’s change to the Bush plan (he intends to resite the planned shield) has helped to ease tensions. Co-operation between the two countries continues in important areas. Russia now allows supplies to cross its territory to American and allied forces in Afghanistan. Russia, as a permanent member of the UN"s Security Council, is also slowly coming around to the idea of new sanctions on Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

美国与俄罗斯间的关系在布什执政的后几年，特别是美国的中欧导弹防御计划提出后严重恶化，此次达成了核武器削减协议有助于缓和两国的关系。奥巴马修改了布什的计划，他打算改变反导武器的部署地点，这有助于缓和紧张局势。两国在一些重要领域继续保持合作。俄罗斯现在允许通过其领土向在阿富汗的美国和盟国军队运输补给。俄罗斯作为联合国安理会常任理事国，也慢慢地接受了对伊朗核计划进行新的制裁的建议。

The momentum of the new START deal may help other nuclear negotiations. The treaty is to be signed in Prague on April 8th. Shortly after that a conference on nuclear security will take place in Washington, to discuss measures to help lock down potentially loose nuclear material that could otherwise find its way into the hands of terrorists. (Mr Lugar was an early sponsor of American efforts to secure weapons material inside the former Soviet Union).

新的削减战略武器条约协议的达成，将可能推动其它核谈判的进程。该条约预定4月8日在布拉格签署。在这之后不久，一个关于核安全的会议将在华盛顿举行，讨论如何采取措施帮助锁定可能外流的核材料，否则这些核材料有可能流入恐怖分子手中。卢格先生是美国努力防止前苏联的武器材料外流计划的热心发起人。

Another conference takes place in May, under the auspices of the United Nations, for a five-yearly review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That treaty recognised five nuclear powers—America, Russia, China, France and Britain. It allows all other countries, in compliance with their treaty obigations, to pursue civilian nuclear power but no nuclear weapons. It also commits the nuclear powers to work towards nuclear disarmament. Israel, India and Pakistan never signed the deal and have all developed nukes. North Korea flounced out of the NPT and tested a bomb, too.

在联合国的主持下，另一个会议将在5月份进行，会议的议程是进行5年一度的审查不扩散核武器条约（NPT）。该条约承认五个核大国——美国、俄罗斯、中国、法国和英国拥有核武器的地位。该条约允许所有其他国家在遵守该条约规定的义务的前提下合法开发利用民用核能，但不允许发展核武器。该条约还承诺现有核国家努力实现核裁军。以色列，印度和巴基斯坦从未签署该条约，并都发展了核武器。朝鲜也突然退出了不扩散核武器条约，并试爆了一枚核弹。

Mr Obama"s team hopes that weapons cuts will draw some of the sting of a charge of hypocrisy by the big powers in trying to deny nuclear weapons to others, and may therefore allow for a robust strenghtening of the NPT.

美国政府还希望通过削减核武器的行动，减少一些大国为了掩盖其向外转移核武器的举动而指责美国伪善的口实，从而强化不扩散核武器条约。