US, Russia must work to build mutual trust--Velikhov

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Itar-Tass) - Along with efforts towards
accomplishing tasks to reduce nuclear arms, the United States and Russia
must work to build mutul trust which had been lost in recent years,
Academician Yevgeny Velikhov, president of the Russian Kurchatov Institute
research center, told Itar-Tass in an interview on Monday.
Velikhov is a member of the international Global Zero commission which
comes out in favour of fully eliminating nuclear weapons.
Global Zero members, Velikhov among them, emphasized that the
Presidents of the United States and Russia, Barack Obama and Dmitry
Medvedev, had supported the idea of complete elimination of nuclear
weapons.
Upon having recalled the important breakthrough in the field of
disarmament at the end of the 1980s, the Russian scientist remarked, "The
process was interrupted at that time" following the break-up of the Soviet
Union.
"Nowadays, of course, there is a different phase. There is no Cold Wat
any longer. It would seem that there are no insurmountable contradictions
among the nuclear powers either. However, unfortunately, there still are
other factors, such as the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the emergence
of new nuclear powers, terrorism, and local regional conflicts. At present
the question is posed as follows: can one imagine a realistic plan for the
elimination of nuclear weapons?" Velikhov queried.
The plan that the Global Zero panel presented in Washington, as
Academician Velikhov put it, constitutes an attempt at showing that
complete elimination of nuclear weapons is quite a feasible task.
Touching upon the ongoing Russo-American talks on a renewal of the
START-1 Treaty, Velikhov expressed an opinion that "Simultaneously with
that, we must build trust, which was to a considerable extent lost,
between many countries, including that between the US and Russia".