START FOLLOW-ON NEGOTIATIONS, MOSCOW (SFO-MOSCOW):

S E C R E T MOSCOW 000163

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR T, VCI, AND EUR/PRA
DOE FOR NNSA/NA-24
CIA FOR WINPAC
JCS FOR J5/DDGSA
SECDEF FOR OSD(P)/STRATCAP
NAVY FOR CNO-N5JA AND DIRSSP
AIRFORCE FOR HQ USAF/ASX AND ASXP
DTRA FOR OP-OS OP-OSA AND DIRECTOR
NSC FOR LOOK
DIA FOR LEA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/21/2035
TAGS: KACT MARR PARM PREL RS US START
SUBJECT: START FOLLOW-ON NEGOTIATIONS, MOSCOW (SFO-MOSCOW):
(U) NEGOTIATOR MEETING WITH HER COUNTERPART, JANUARY 21,
2010

Classified By: Assistant Secretary Rose E. Gottemoeller. Reasons 1.4 (
b),(d),and (h).


1. (U) This is SFO-MOS-006.


2. (U) Meeting Date: January 21, 2010
Times: 4:30 - 5:30 P.M.
Place: MFA, Moscow

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Summary
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3. (S) MFA DVBR Director Antonov told A/S Gottemoeller that
he was not aware of which topics the GOR would raise during
January 22 meetings with NSA Jones and CJCS Mullen, claiming
the MFA had no role in organizing these meetings. Antonov
posited that the GOR would not change its position on
exchanging telemetry data. He added that he and his Deputy
Director watched TV news reports of Medvedev's meetings with
Russian political party leaders, in which the political party
leaders supported simultaneous ratification of the START
Follow-On Treaty by the U.S. and Russian legislatures.
Antonov said that his team would be ready to continue talks
in Geneva on February 1. Various treaty articles were
discussed, and Antonov said that he would receive
instructions from Medvedev after the January 22 meetings.

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Antonov Out of the Loop?
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4. (S) When asked by A/S Gottemoeller about which topics the
Russian side would like to discuss with NSA Jones and CJCS
Mullen during their January 22 meeting, MFA DVBR Director
Anatoliy Anotonov said that he did not know. He claimed that
the MFA played no role in organizing the CJCS Mullen-CHOD
Makarov meeting. He claimed the MFA had not been consulted
in putting together the agenda and he was glad about this, as
this meant "the MOD is doing the staff work." He added that
he had not seen the final GOR talking points. He did say,
however, that the GOR would like to discuss the relationship
between strategic offensive arms and missile defense (MD).

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Telemetry
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5. (S) Antonov asserted that the GOR position on telemetry
was still as Medvedev outlined in his December 12 statement.
"There can be no new proposals, only ways to close out the
issue," he said. He added that the MFA had encouraged the
MOD to be flexible on the issue, however.

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Medvedev Spoke to Political Leaders
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6. (S) Antonov said he and MFA DVBR Deputy Director Sergey
Koshelev watched TV news reports of Medvedev's recent meeting
with Russian political party leaders who gave their views on
START Follow-On Treaty (SFO) ratification. The party leaders
agreed that the U.S. and Russia should ratify the treaty
simultaneously. Antonov said that he had been following the
Russian press closely regarding the SFO issue, and said that
it was very important to Russian national security. He said
that he had to be very cautious on the remaining issues left
to finish the treaty, since now both the parliamentarians and
nongovernmental Russian experts were closely following the


negotiations. He claimed that the new Treaty would be
critically scrutinized in the Duma when it came up for
ratification.

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Negotiations to Continue in Geneva
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7. (S) Antonov said that his delegation would leave Moscow on
January 31 and arrive in Geneva, ready to continue SFO talks
on February 1. This session would last no more than four
weeks. He said that, even if the two sides did not reach
agreement after four weeks, then the GOR would need to return
to Moscow to discuss the remaining issues among the various
GOR agencies. He agreed with A/S Gottemoeller's suggestion
that conforming the treaty should continue while the
negotiations were in progress. Antonov also complained about
translation and bureaucratic issues, saying that the paper on
Unique Identifiers (UID) and the protocol section on
telemetry, which the U.S. side had conveyed to the MFA on
January 18, would not reach GOR agencies until January 20,
and perhaps not reach the right desks in those agencies
before January 22. (Comment: The relevant agencies seem to
have had a chance to digest the U.S. papers when the
Jones-Mullen-Makarov meeting occurred on January 22. End
comment.)

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Various Articles Discussed
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8. (S) A/S Gottemoeller said the U.S. would be willing to
discuss the brackets in Articles VI and XIII of the SFO,
depending on progress in the upcoming meeting of NSA Jones
and CJCS Mullen with General Makarov. She said the U.S.
recognized that Article VI cannot have special requirements
for Russian mobile ICBMs only, as the U.S. side had accepted
the concept of equivalence in the new treaty. Regarding
Article XIV.(c),Antonov recognized the need for notification
of new kinds of strategic offensive arms, but argued this
should be in the notification section of the treaty protocol,
not the treaty text. A/S Gottemoeller told Antonov that the
GOR's suggested language for Article V.4 would not be
accepted until agreement was reached on the telemetry issue.
She added that she was not sure why a joint statement on MD
was needed if Article V already mentioned this topic. A/S
Gottemoeller also pressed Antonov for reactions to Article
VIII, but Antonov demurred, saying this could be solved in
Geneva. She added
the U.S. side was working hard on the Trident I statement.

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Antonov Awaits Instructions
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9. (S) Antonov said he would see what directions he got from
Medvedev after the January 22 meetings of NSA Jones and CJCS
Mullen. He said that he currently had no instructions.
Instructions, he posited, would come after Prikhodko and
Makarov briefed Medvedev.


10. (U) A/S Gottemoeller cleared this message.
Beyrle