People's Democracy

BUSH-PUTIN SUMMIT

Russia Accepts US Terms

Prakash Karat

THE Bush visit to Moscow has led to two agreements between the USA and Russia, which reflect the changed world situation and the state of relations between the two countries. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signalled his willingness to accept US dominance and come to terms with it. It is an acknowledgement of Russia's weakened and subordinate status.

The first agreement relates to the reduction of nuclear warheads, which is contained in a treaty for reduction of strategic offensive weapons. Both the US and Russia are committed to reducing the nuclear warheads each possesses by two-thirds from 6000 to between 1700 to 2200 within ten years. This appears to be a substantial reduction, but actually the treaty will lead to strengthening the US superiority. The Russians wanted verification of the warheads dismantled, but the Americans refused to accept it. The Russians had also wanted the warheads to be destroyed, but the US side did not agree. The warheads, which are taken off the missiles, will not be destroyed but put in storage.

The treaty signed is an expression of the existing balance of forces. The United States does not view the present Russian arsenal of nuclear weapons as a major threat. It is set on developing a new range of nuclear weapons and missiles; so it agreed to reduce the existing stockpile. Its pre-occupation with the threat coming from smaller countries and groups which refuse to accept its hegemony, requires a changed military strategy and modernisation of its military forces to meet such threats. In a major speech on June 1, Bush has declared that the US must take pre-emptive action against "terror cells in 60 or more countries." Russia, on the other hand, is a pale shadow of the powerful Soviet Union with its freshly implanted and deformed capitalist system. Putin is more intent on accommodation with the US rather than challenging its global hegemony, given the nature of the system in place in Russia now.

That is why President Putin has more or less given up opposition to the unilateral US abrogation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty of 1972, which has opened the way for the US to pursue its National Missile Defence (NMD) system and create other new weapons systems. The US has offered to take Russia into confidence while building its NMD system.

The Moscow treaty was signed without the United States making any major concessions to Russia. It has not agreed to a fixed timetable for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation nor certified that Russia has a market economy status. The Russian demand for scrapping of the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment adopted by the US Congress, which restricts trade with Russia, remains unfulfilled.

The Communist Party of Russian Federation has denounced Putin for his surrender to the American hegemonistic plans. It says Russia will not be an equal partner in the arms reduction treaty but play a subordinate role.

The treaty has come at a time when the Bush administration is adopting new aggressive military measures. After having withdrawn from the ABM treaty and refusing to ratify the biological weapons convention, the United States is set to adopt a new, dangerous nuclear policy.

Recently, the US conducted a review of its nuclear policy, called the Nuclear Posture Review. The review calls for "Unilateral Assured Destruction" which means nuclear weapons countries like Russia and China will be targetted by offensive measures rather than by second strike nuclear forces. The review goes even further. It explicitly lists non-nuclear states like Libya, Syria, Iran, Iraq and North Korea as potential targets for nuclear strikes by the United States.

The review puts forth a 40-year plan for developing and acquiring new nuclear weapons. The emphasis is on smaller tactical weapons which can be used in combat operations. It calls for new launch platforms in the air, sea and land to be deployed in 2010, 2020 and 2040. The new low-yield and variable-yield warheads would require further nuclear testing. In its quest for total superiority and domination, the US is embarking on a policy of building new nuclear weapons targetting non-nuclear states with its nuclear arsenal and sparking off a long-term nuclear arms race.

It is in this background that the Moscow treaty must be viewed. It is not a step towards reducing nuclear weapons but part of a perilous course embarked upon by the United States to raise the nuclear stakes.

The next major step taken has been the formation of the NATO-Russia Council which has been formally announced at a NATO-Russia Summit held near Rome on May 28. The 19-member NATO has now included Russia in the new council where it has been made clear that Russia will have a voice but no veto power. Russia cannot veto NATO's decisions or its vote to expand its membership. By this step taken by President Putin, the US plan to include seven more countries bordering Russia into NATO will go ahead. The NATO annual summit is to be held in Prague in November where the Baltic states and other East European countries joining NATO will be taken up. Speaking at the inaugural meeting, Putin stated that joining the council does not mean that NATO will have carta-blanche for military action. But Russia will have no say in the core military alliance and will be limited to certain areas like crisis management, peace-keeping, air defence, search and rescue operation and joint exercises.

The 17th congress of the CPI(M) had noted that the post-September 11 period constitutes a new phase in international relations marked by the renewed thrust of US imperialism to consolidate its hegemonic position. Russia was asked to become a partner in the US-led coalition against terrorism. Under this guise, the United States has got Putin to accede to the US strategic designs. Putin acquiesced in American troops being based in the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The Moscow treaty on arms reduction and the setting up of the NATO-Russia Council are further steps to ensure that Russia is compliant to the global strategy of the United States.

The NATO itself is a body with no mission left after the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Set-up in 1948 as a military alliance to counter the Soviet Union and socialism, currently NATO has become nothing more than a tool of the United States in its aggressive global military campaign. From the war on Yugoslavia in 1998 to the current war on terrorism, the United States has used NATO as an auxiliary force in its military campaigns.

The Russian people will find it difficult to accept the new subordinate role assigned to Russia by the US and its NATO allies. According to a recent poll, 66 per cent of the Russian people polled think that the recent steps in US-Russia relations is being used by Bush to strengthen his own country's position at the expense of others. The contradictions within the so-called coalition against terrorism is bound to grow in the face of the unilateralism of the United States in the political, economic and military spheres. Already there is a widening gulf between the United States and Europe on the perception and approaches on how to deal with various questions in international affairs.

The recent steps taken by the United States such as its plans to attack Iraq, its open support to Israel and threatening countries like Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea are causing disquiet in European circles. On the trade front, the US action in imposing a 30 per cent tariff on steel imports has evoked vigorous protest from countries around the world. This, alongwith the huge subsidies given to US farmers through the recent Farm Bill exposes the duplicity of the United States with its talk of free trade and opposing subsidies to agriculture in other countries.

Being the world's policeman and fighter against terrorism is sustained by a huge increase in the Pentagon budget, the largest ever in recent times. This alone will be insufficient to contain the growing tensions and conflicts under Pax-Americana.

It is in this context that the Vajpayee government's dual policy of militarisation and collaboration with US must be viewed. The BJP-led government wants to turn India into a junior partner of the US. As part of this plan, the deepening military collaboration with the US armed forces is being pursued. The joint exercises in Agra between Indian paratroopers and American special forces are to be followed by joint exercises in the sensitive north-eastern region. In the meantime, we have set new heights in acting as mercenaries, by contracting Indian naval ships to escort US vessels through the Malacca straits. The next step is the signing of an agreement on mutual use of military facilities which will formalise US use of Indian military facilities and bases.

As for militaristic jingoism, the BJP has hardly left any opportunity unutilised ever since the May 1998 Pokhran tests. In a recent speech at Leh, L K Advani ‘refuted’ Dr Amartya Sen's point that emphasis on education and health promotes development. According to the Hindutva ideologue, it is defence which ensures development. Bush and the BJP are true-soul mates in this world dominated by aggressive imperialists and their willing accomplices.