(U) START FOLLOW-ON NEGOTIATIONS, GENEVA

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2019
TAGS: KACT MARR PARM PREL RS US START
SUBJECT: (U) START FOLLOW-ON NEGOTIATIONS, GENEVA
(SFO-GVA-VI): HEADS AND DEPUTY HEADS OF DELEGATION
MEETING, OCTOBER 19, 2009

REF: GENEVA 0863 (SFO-GVA-V-040)

Classified By: A/S Rose E. Gottemoeller, United States
START Negotiator. Reasons: 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (U) This is SFO-GVA-VI-001.


2. (U) Meeting Date: October 19, 2009
Time: 10:00 - 11:00 A.M.
Place: U.S. Mission, Geneva
Participants:

U.S. RUSSIA

A/S Gottemoeller Amb Antonov
Amb Ries Mr. Koshelev
Dr. Warner Gen Orlov
Mr. Vogel (Notetaker) Ms. Komshilova (Int)


3. (S) On Monday, October 19, 2009 at 10:00 A.M., a coffee
took place at the U.S. Mission prior to the start of the
first plenary meeting of the session. Participants were
Assistant Secretary Gottemoeller, Ambassador Ries, and Dr.
Warner on the U.S. side, and Ambassador Antonov, Mr.
Koshelev, and Gen Orlov on the Russian side. The sides
discussed the work plan for the session, and established that
an Ad-Hoc Working Group would meet periodically to address
counting rules, aggregate warhead and launcher limits, and
other key issues.


4. (U) SUBJECT SUMMARY: U.S.-proposed Work Schedule; Ad-Hoc
Working Group on Counting Rules; Revisiting Missile Defense;
Return to the Schedule; and Russia on Other START Parties'
Security.

--------------
U.S.-proposed Work Schedule
--------------


5. (S) A/S Gottemoeller opened the discussion by handing
over a U.S.-proposed schedule for the current week's work for
Antonov's review and comment. She began to highlight the
proposed schedule when Antonov asked whether the U.S. side
would present the briefing requested during the previous
round in Geneva and promised in Moscow. (Begin comment: The
Russians had requested a briefing on U.S. plans for
conventionally-armed ICBMs and SLBMs. End comment.)
Gottemoeller said that a briefing to the Russian side would
take place at Thursday's plenary meeting, as promised. She
walked through the U.S.-proposed schedule and highlighted
that the signing ceremony of the documents that contained the
principles and procedures for completion of continuous
monitoring activity at Votkinsk would take place on Tuesday.
The sides also agreed to informally discuss Russian concerns
with the U.S. Missile Defense (MD) Program.

--------------
Ad-Hoc Working Group
on Counting Rules
--------------


6. (S) Gottemoeller said that she wanted to establish an
ad-hoc working group to work on important issues outside the


established working group channels. She proposed that the
ad-hoc group meet to address counting rules, aggregate
warhead and launcher limits, and other key issues. She
suggested that there should be a "five plus five" format for
attendees and noted that the U.S. Delegation at the meetings
would include Ries, Warner, Mr. Elliott, Mr. Trout, and Mr.
Siemon.


7. (S) Ambassador Antonov asked some clarifying questions on
the proposed schedule which included questions on meeting
details for the new Ad-Hoc Group and the existing working
groups. Ries replied that the Treaty Text and Definitions
Working Group (TTDWG) would try to resolve issues on Treaty
Article XIII and the Bilateral Consultative Commission
Protocol and, if time permitted, work treaty prohibition
issues under Article V. Ries also proposed that the TTDWG
continue its work on terms and definitions.


8. (S) Antonov clarified that the TTDWG would compare U.S.
and Russian texts for compatibility. He said that ADM
Kuznetsov would head the Russian side for work on
definitions. Antonov said that, in order to make the best
use of the delegations time, the sides' military experts
should review Article V issues.


9. (S) Koshelev asked when a discussion on the issue of
non-transfer of strategic offensive arms to third States
would occur. Ries replied that Koshelev referred to Article
XIV in the U.S.-proposed text, which could be addressed along
with the other final articles. She said that the TTDWG
should begin work on the substantive articles this week where
they touched on issues that had been previously addressed
either in the Moscow discussions or in the protocol working
groups.


10. (S) Gottemoeller said that a great deal of progress had
been made in the Inspection Protocol Working Group (IPWG) and
Conversion or Elimination (CorE) and Notifications Working
Groups. She said that the Russian side needed to work on
Article V (Prohibitions) to reinsert START language back into
the draft text. Antonov agreed to discuss this issue during
a heads of delegation (HOD) meeting later in the week.

--------------
Revisiting Missile Defense
--------------


11. (S) Moving on to the issue of MD, Antonov asked Warner
whether the U.S. side understood Russia's concerns. Warner
stated that the U.S. side understood the Russian side's
concerns better. He said that Russia was concerned that
qualitative and quantitative growth in U.S. MD could be
grounds for Russian withdrawal from the Treaty.


12. (S) Antonov said the Parties needed to address whether
or not to include additional language on MD in the START
Follow-on Treaty. He asked that the sides address this and
other Russian concerns during this session. Antonov offered
to discuss MD issues in an informal way. Gottemoeller asked
for Antonov's views on Lt Gen O'Riley's Moscow briefing on
MD. Antonov agreed to provide his views on the matter on the
margins of this session. Antonov said that his primary
concerns were focused on Phase 4 of the U.S. ten-year plan


for MD in Europe.

--------------
Return to the Schedule
--------------


13. (S) Regarding the TTDWG, Antonov said he could discuss
the issue of reinserting prohibitions into Article V drawn
from START, but not formulate new definitions. He agreed
that Gottemoeller's approach to addressing the definitions
and terms in an iterative manner, correlating the examination
of key terms with the appropriate articles in the treaty and
not reviewing the entire list of definitions at one time was
a more efficient way to proceed. Antonov said that Kuznetsov
would lead the work on definitions for the Russian side.


14. (S) Addressing Koshelev's question on how to resolve the
Parties' differences regarding the Preamble, Gottemoeller
said the U.S. side would provide a revised version this week.


15. (S) Warner offered a path to proceed regarding review of
Article XI which addresses inspection activities. He has
provided a list of inspection activities for the Russian side
to review. Warner noted that Col I'lin previously said that
he only wanted to focus on the Inspection Protocol (IP),but
he has a relevant part in the treaty text too. He noted that
the IPWG and TTDWG should work together in reaching agreement
on Article XI.


16. (S) Gottemoeller pointed out that the main idea is to
have a more dynamic interrelationship between working groups;
doing so would allow good momentum through the week.


17. (S) Warner highlighted the proposed activity for the
IPWG, which included separating the issues that should go
into the treaty and protocol from those that would go into
the so-called "third tier" annexes. He wanted the Parties to
agree on an approach as soon as possible and apply that
approach during the remainder of the session.


18. (S) Antonov said that the work would be slightly delayed
because some Russian delegation members, including Col I'lin,
Russian co-chair of the IPWG, had not arrived in Geneva yet.
He lamented that he had some delegation problems to wade
through.

--------------
Russia on other START
Parties' Security
--------------


19. (S) Antonov said he wanted to work on the Joint
Statement regarding Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, to
reinsert language that had previously been removed by the
U.S. side. He wanted to send a signal to the other START
Parties that removing nuclear weapons from their territories
did not decrease their security. He noted that Ukraine, in
particular, was sensitive on this matter. Gottemoeller said
that the U.S. side could work with the Russian side on this
issue.


20. (S) On the issue of convening an ad-hoc group on
aggregate limits, Antonov said that a substantial number of



Russian Delegation members would want to attend.
Gottemoeller suggested that the Parties experiment with the
five plus five format and have a plenary meeting to follow up
on the issues on Thursday (October 22).


21. (S) Gottemoeller ended the meeting after a general
discussion to adjust the U.S.-proposed work schedule. She
noted that she was looking forward to a lot of progress this
session.


22. (S) Ries remained behind to review details of the
proposed TTDWG work schedule with Koshelev while the others
departed to attend a plenary meeting. She said the U.S. side
wanted to discuss the logic behind the U.S. proposal for
three months versus six months to terminate the treaty which
was contained in Treaty Article XV. She also said that the
U.S. side was concerned about the time remaining to negotiate
the treaty; but noted that the IPWG and the Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) Working Group had accomplished a lot of
work which could serve as the basis for working on the
relevant treaty articles. She noted that telemetry and
non-interference with national technical means were
complicated issues that could wait until later to be
addressed. She said that, all in all, there were about nine
substantive issues and that four or five could be discussed
in the next two weeks. She suggested that work on terms and
definitions could begin by starting on the approximately 30
definitions that the sides have essentially the same text.


23. (U) Documents exchanged.

- U.S.:

-- U.S.-proposed work schedule; and

-- U.S.-proposed IPWG activity list.


24. (U) Gottemoeller sends.
GRIFFITHS