WASHINGTON, April 6, (AP): President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday to constrain the use of the nation’s Cold War-era nuclear arsenal, part of a bold but politically risky move aimed at discouraging nuclear technology from spreading. Obama’s plan, a sharp departure from his predecessor’s policy, is a bid to play down the threat posed by nations like Russia and China while emphasizing the threat posed by terrorists or states believed to encourage terror. “To stop the spread of nuclear weapons, prevent nuclear terrorism, and pursue the day when these weapons do not exist, we will work aggressively to advance every element of our comprehensive agenda: to reduce arsenals, to secure vulnerable nuclear materials, and to strengthen” international agreement, Obama said in a statement.

Under the new plan, the US promises not to use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. The policy would not apply to states like North Korea and Iran, however, because of their refusal to cooperate with other countries on nonproliferation standards.
Obama’s plan would lessen the role nuclear weapons play in America’s defense planning.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he welcomes the president’s reaffirmation of his commitment toward a nuclear-free world and believes the new Nuclear Posture Review “is a timely initiative in that direction.”
Congressional Democrats also praised the decision, while some Republicans said it could weaken the US defense capability.
Rep Buck McKeon, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the policy change could carry “clear consequences” for security and said he was troubled by “some of the language and perceived signals embedded” in the policy.
At a Pentagon news conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the unprecedented limits being placed on the US nuclear arsenal will not weaken the nation’s defenses and will send a “strong message” to Iran and North Korea to “play by the rules.”

“All options are on the table when it comes to countries in that category,” Gates said.
Obama has stopped short of saying the US will never be the first to launch a nuclear attack, as many arms control advocates want.
Gates said the administration decided against limiting the nation’s options further because of the danger still being posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
“This is obviously a weapon of last resort,” Gates told reporters. But “we also recognize the real world we continue to live in.”
Gates said that a new policy restricting the use of nuclear weapons did not apply to countries such as Iran and North Korea, which he said are pursuing nuclear weapons in defiance of the international community.
He also said the United States is moving toward a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons but is not ready to devise one yet. Gates said he did not believe “we were far enough along the road” toward controlling nuclear weapons around the world to give up the right to pre-emptive strikes.
The United States is the only country to use nuclear weapons in wartime.
Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he “wholly endorses” the plan and believes it includes effective deterrents.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the redrawn policy shores up the US commitment to global nonproliferation efforts, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under which states without nuclear weapons are supposed to refrain from developing them.
She said Washington is reinforcing its commitment to a nonproliferation culture “by stating clearly for the first time that the United States will not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states” that have signed the treaty and abide by it.
Clinton said the US will continue to try to seek common ground with Russia on the issue of missile defense despite the Kremlin’s suspicion that such systems are aimed at crippling its nuclear arsenal.
Think tank
The new US nuclear weapons guidelines are a significant policy shift that show Obama is making good on his commitment to reduce atomic weapons, a leading defence think tank said Tuesday.
“I welcome the release of the Nuclear Posture Review and its core message: that the United States is taking steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in its overall national security policy,” the head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Bates Gill, said in a statement.
His comments came after the Obama administration released the long-awaited policy document on its nuclear strategy that sharply limited the scenarios in which the United States would use atomic weapons.
“By deciding not to pursue new nuclear weapons, the US will forego next-generation weapons and the expansion of missions which such new weapons might fill,” Gill said, lamenting nonetheless that the new nuclear policy “fell short of a ‘no first use’ declaration.”
Tuesday’s announcement, he said, “signals the most significant policy shift of any of the three Nuclear Posture Reviews since 1994 towards reductions in the role of nuclear weapons.”
“All in all, President Obama is making good on his commitment to work towards a world without nuclear weapons,” Gill said.
Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev are set to sign a new disarmament treaty in Prague on Thursday, the first such pact in nearly a decade, after months of difficult negotiations.
Withdraw
The new US-Russian arms control treaty is a much better deal for Russia than its predecessor, but Moscow reserves the right to withdraw from it if a planned US missile defense system grows into a threat, Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday.
Sergey Lavrov said Russia will issue a statement outlining the terms for such a withdrawal after President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign the treaty Thursday in Prague. The new accord replaces the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I, which expired in December.
Lavrov has said before that Russia could withdraw from the treaty. But his comments at a briefing Tuesday were his most specific yet on how and why a withdrawal could occur.
“Russia will have the right to opt out of the treaty if ... the US strategic missile defense begins to significantly affect the efficiency of Russian strategic nuclear forces,” he said.
Moscow welcomed Obama’s decision to scrap the previous administration’s plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, but expressed concern about plans for a revamped shield, including a possible facility in Romania.
Lavrov said the site in Romania poses no immediate threat, but Russia could opt out of the new treaty if US missile interceptors become capable of intercepting Russia’s strategic missiles.
“We have noted that the US system won’t have a strategic capacity in its early stages,” he said. “We shall see what will happen next. When and if this system gets a strategic capacity. We shall see whether it creates risks for our strategic nuclear forces.”
Transparency
Lack of transparency surrounding China’s nuclear programs raises questions about its strategic intentions, the United States said on Tuesday.
“China’s nuclear arsenal remains much smaller than the arsenals of Russia and the United States,” the administration said in a nuclear policy document published on Tuesday.
“But the lack of transparency surrounding its nuclear programs — their pace and scope, as well as the strategy and doctrine that guides them — raises questions about China’s future strategic intentions.”
“The United States and China’s Asian neighbors remain concerned about the pace and scope of China’s current military modernization efforts, including its quantitative and qualitative modernization of its nuclear capabilities,” it said.
China last month unveiled its 2010 military budget with a spending hike of 7.5 percent, a relatively low figure that surprised outside analysts after more than two decades of double-digit rises.
The US report reiterated the Pentagon’s oft-stated wish to hold a strategic dialogue with the Chinese military that would “provide a venue and mechanism for each side to communicate its views about the other’s strategies, policies, and programs on nuclear weapons and other strategic capabilities.”
“The goal of such a dialogue is to enhance confidence, improve transparency, and reduce mistrust,” the report added.
China ended weeks of uncertainty last week when it announced that President Hu Jintao would attend a summit next week on nuclear security in Washington.
Role
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Tuesday the United States would maintain a “stabilizing role” for its allies after issuing a new policy restricting the use of nuclear weapons.
“For generations, the United States’ nuclear deterrent has helped prevent proliferation by providing our non-nuclear allies in NATO, the Pacific, and elsewhere with reassurance and security,” Clinton told reporters.
“The policies outlined in this review will allow us to continue that stabilizing role,” she said.
The United States has been committed since the aftermath of World War II to providing a nuclear umbrella for key allies including Japan, South Korea and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).