美国国家公共电台 NPR Arms Control Surfaced In Helsinki, But It's Likely Just Talk

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. Now, in Helsinki yesterday, Presidents Trump¹ and Putin also embraced restarting stalled arms control talks. For all the bad blood between the U.S. and Russia, those two nations still inspect one another's vast nuclear arsenals² and both have sharply curtailed³ the number of nuclear weapons poised⁴ to launch. But that coordination⁵ is thanks to two arms control treaties, which are now at risk. NPR's David Welna explains.

DAVID WELNA, BYLINE⁶: Moments before Trump and Putin showed up at their post-talks news conference, the issue of nuclear arms control was already creating a stir in the room.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Unintelligible) nuclear weapons (unintelligible).

WELNA: Security guards hauled away a man holding a sign reading Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. It was a reference to a U.N. treaty approved last year that neither the U.S. nor Russia, which together have more than 13,000 nukes, signed onto. Still, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a short time later through an interpreter that, as major nuclear powers, the U.S. and Russia bear what he called special responsibility for maintaining international security.

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: (Through interpreter) We mentioned this during the negotiations⁷. It's crucial that we fine-tune the dialect on strategic stability and global security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We submitted our American colleagues a note with a number of specific suggestions.

WELNA: Those include, Putin said, an extension of the soon-to-expire New START treaty, discussions about U.S. missile defense⁸ systems and issues with the troubled Reagan-era Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. Olga Oliker directs the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She says this was little more than Putin's standard wish list.

OLGA OLIKER: These are things that they actually could have put together into something of a joint⁹ statement because there is enough agreement, even if its agreement to talk about the disagreements, to have gotten a get out of the summit on these topics. And instead what we have is that the Russians passed over a paper with suggestions.

WELNA: And even though it was clearly Putin who took the initiative on more arms talks, Trump seemed eager to chime in.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Whether it's nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping - 'cause we have to do it, ultimately - that's probably the most important thing that we can be working on.

WELNA: But Dimitri Simes, who heads the Center for the National Interest here in Washington, does not expect the status quo to change anytime soon.

DIMITRI SIMES: I think that you will not get any arms control agreements out of Helsinki. Neither side is quite prepared for that.

WELNA: In fact, Trump has few seasoned non-proliferation experts in his administration. Yesterday he blamed the inaction on arms control on the Justice Department's probe into Russian interference in the election that brought him to power.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: It has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90 percent of nuclear power between the two countries. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous what's going on with the probe.

WELNA: Putin, for his part, did tell Fox News that he'd be willing to extend the New START treaty. But the CSIS's Oliker says, given Russia's invasion of Ukraine and then annexation¹⁰ of Crimea four years ago, it's not clear how much enthusiasm there might be in Washington for extending that Obama-era arms deal.

OLIKER: At the State Department, other parts of the U.S. government, there is a desire not to reach any agreements with the Russians without some sort of resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

WELNA: About which, she adds, Trump said nothing yesterday, at least publicly. David Welna, NPR News, Washington.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 arsenals   

n.兵工厂，军火库( arsenal的名词复数 )；任何事物的集成

参考例句：

• We possess-each of us-nuclear arsenals capable of annihilating humanity. 我们两国都拥有能够毁灭全人类的核武库。 来自辞典例句
• Arsenals are factories that produce weapons. 军工厂是生产武器的工厂。 来自互联网

3 curtailed   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。
• Their public health programme had to be severely curtailed. 他们的公共卫生计划不得不大大收缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

5 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 annexation   

n.吞并，合并

参考例句：

• He mentioned the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 .他提及1910年日本对朝鲜的吞并。
• I regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively to the United States and Texas.我认为合并的问题，完全属于德克萨斯和美国之间的事。