Joint U.S./Soviet Techincal Talks

In the Spring of 1988 the treaty signatories held a series of INF Treaty Technical Talks. The U.S. and Soviet delegations shown here met at the National War College in Washington, D.C. in April 1988.		   As they responded to this blitz of questions about the treaty and OSIA's operational and organizational activities, General Lajoie and key senior officers also participated in a series of U.S.-Soviet "technical talks" held in Moscow, Washington, and Vienna in March, April, and May 1988. The agenda for the bilateral meetings focused on implementing the on-site inspection provisions of the treaty. During treaty negotiations U.S. and Soviet negotiators had acknowledged that certain practical and procedural issues--flight call signs, diplomatic visas, communication message formats, and other matters--were best left out of the treaty text. These issues would be resolved informally in a series of meetings between representatives of the two governments once the treaty had been signed. Each of the three meetings lasted a week; cumulatively they resulted in a range of joint decisions on procedural issues.13

Led by General Lajoie and General Major Vladimir I. Medvedev, these technical talks resolved more than a hundred issues on how the two nations would carry out their treaty-specified rights and responsibilities. In March in Moscow, the two delegations agreed on standardizing the photographic and measuring equipment taken to the site by the inspection teams and they discussed how notifications of arrival and departure of the teams would be handled. At these meetings, the leaders and their 13-member delegations resolved 46 issues, including procedures for operating, landing, and refueling INF aircraft flying into and out of each nation's treaty-designated entry points. They agreed that inspectors could have a notebook, paper, writing instruments, flashlight, and hand-held compass. All inspection teams would have uniform weighing and measuring equipment. The initial portal monitoring on-site inspection operations at Votkinsk and Magna were discussed extensively.14 At a separate U.S.-USSR conference in Washington in April, specific formats for INF Treaty messages were developed; these messages would be sent and received through the respective Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers (NRRCs).

 

Finally, in May the two delegations met for five days in Vienna and agreed on a wide range of issues facilitating inspections at the portals, missile sites, and elimination facilities. The issues surrounding the establishment of resident on-site inspection teams at the two portal monitoring sites were taken up in a point-by-point discussion. The treaty granted each nation the right to monitor the portal and perimeter of a designated former INF missile production facility for up to 13 years. Turning this treaty right into an operational reality required extensive working-level negotiations over the construction of permanent facilities for housing the inspectors and the installation of treaty-authorized monitoring systems.15

During the technical talks several questions arose regarding how the Soviet Union would interpret the treaty once it had entered into force.

INF TREATY TECHNICAL TALKS
Moscow - Washington - Vienna

TOPIC HIGHLIGHTS

AIRCRAFT AND CREWS INSPECTION PROCEDURES PORTAL OPERATIONS (VOTKINSK AND MAGNA)
Flight Plans

Navigation Escort

Alternate Airfields

Diplomatic Aircrew Escort

Aircrew Accommodations

 Accommodations For Soviet Inspectors

Wearing Identification

Solidifying of Technical Data
* Communications
* Site Transport

 Accommodations

For Soviet Inspectors
* Housing
* Communication
* Transport
* Supplies

Diplomatic Travel to Portals

Travel of Inspectors to Embassy/
Consulate

Some of these issues were so serious that they were discussed in the U.S. Senate, then considering ratification of the treaty. As a direct result, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze held extensive consultations in Geneva and New York in late April and early May. Subsequently, the senior negotiators for the two nations exchanged formal diplomatic notes in mid-May, clarifying nine specific INF Treaty issues. These notes, technically called a "diplomatic minute," constituted an understanding about treaty interpretation and became part of the official treaty documents. Resolution of these issues was significant; the U.S. Senate had delayed final debate on the treaty until the diplomatic minute was signed and made part of the treaty documents.16

    

 

Previous Section | Table of Contents | Next Section