Nuclear Threat Initiative Recommends Doing What Obama Refuses, To Prevent Nuclear War with Russia

PRESS RELEASE

Nuclear Threat Initiative Recommends Doing What Obama Refuses, To Prevent Nuclear War with Russia

Dec. 15, 2016 (EIRNS)—The Nuclear Threat Initiative, led by former U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne, Munich Security Forum chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, issued a report yesterday, in which it called on Western and Russian leaders to reduce the risk of a dangerous military confrontation by adopting the measures outlined in the report.

The report stresses, among other measures, the restoration of U.S.-Russian military contacts, cut off by President Obama after the Ukraine crisis exploded in 2014. The report also advises two other measures, among the nine in total, that President Obama has refused to take: requiring all military aircraft to fly with transponders turned on; and addressing concerns about the deployment of nuclear-capable ballistic missile systems and missile defense systems in Europe.

The report highlights the need to resume Western-Russian communication, particularly at the military-to-military level, on strategic stability and nuclear risk reduction.

"Absent engagement, nuclear risks will only continue to increase, endangering all of us. The time to act on our common security interests is now,"

conclude Browne, Ischinger, Ivanov, and Nunn, in the foreword to the report.