Nuclear Policy News – June 16, 2021

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Top News:

Biden, Putin set consultations on updating nuclear pact
Associated Press

Official details DoD Missile Defense Strategy
Department of Defense

STATEMENT: U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability
The White House

United States

STATEMENT: U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability
The White House6/16/21
Consistent with these goals, the United States and Russia will embark together on an integrated bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future that will be deliberate and robust. Through this Dialogue, we seek to lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures.

Official details DoD Missile Defense Strategy
Department of Defense6/16/21
Missile defense plays a key role in U.S. national security. However, as missile technology matures and proliferates among potential adversaries China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, the threat to the U.S., deployed forces, allies and partners is increasing, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy said.

Contractor Oversight: Information on the NNSA’s report on burdensome regulatory requirements
Governmental Accountability Office6/16/21
NNSA requires its contractors to adhere to federal, state, and local regulations. However, NNSA’s contractors view some of these requirements as unnecessarily burdensome.

ANALYSIS: Once, superpower summits were about nukes. Now, it’s about cyberweapons
The New York TimesDavid Sanger
6/16/21
For 70 years, meetings between American presidents and Soviet or Russian leaders were dominated by one looming threat: the vast nuclear arsenals that the two nations started amassing in the 1940s, as instruments of intimidation and, if deterrence failed, mutual annihilation.

OPINION: Robust, credible and layered missile defense is the foundation of deterrence
Defense NewsMaj. Gen. Punch Moulton, Maj. Gen. Francsis Mahon
6/16/21
In 2005, an anticipated missile threat to the homeland prompted the expeditious fielding of a missile defense capability to defend the United States. Today, that threat is real, expanding, and most likely nuclear. Our defense needs to also be real and effective for today and into the future.

East Asia

U.S. envoy for North Korea to visit South Korea for three-way meeting: South Korean official
Reuters6/16/21
The newly appointed U.S. envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, will make his first visit to South Korea this week for a possible three-way meeting with counterparts from Seoul and Tokyo, a South Korean foreign ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday.

North Korea’s Kim warns of ‘tense’ food situation, longer Covid-19 lockdown
NBC6/16/21
The country’s economy has been hit by Covid-19 pandemic border closures, while devastating typhoons and floods last summer decimated crops.

Middle East

EU sees progress on key obstacles at Iran nuclear talks
Associated Press6/15/21
A top European diplomat said Tuesday he believes international negotiations with Iran will ultimately succeed in re-imposing limits on its nuclear program, but indicated that more time may be needed.

Iran bolsters nuclear enrichment, despite election
Jerusalem Post6/16/21
As elections are set to begin in Iran, the country continues enrichment of uranium for its nuclear program, even as the Biden administration discusses reentering the Nuclear Deal.

Nuclear deal must await new Iran gov’t -IAEA chief tells paper
Reuters6/16/21
Reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear accord will have to await the formation of a new Iranian government, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in remarks published on Wednesday, adding a deal needed political will from all parties.

Russia and Europe

Putin says Russia, U.S. to launch nuclear arms control talks
Reuters6/16/21
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow and Washington had agreed tolaunch nuclear arms control talks to build on the New START treaty, a cornerstone of global arms control.

Biden, Putin set consultations on updating nuclear pact
Associated Press6/16/21
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed in a “constructive” summit Wednesday to return their nations’ ambassadors to their posts and begin negotiations to replace the last remaining treaty between the two countries limiting nuclear weapons.

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