What is the future of arms control? asks Lords Committee

How valuable will the Open Skies Treaty be to the remaining states parties if the US leaves as planned in November? Will the US and Russia renew the New START Treaty? How effective has UK advocacy on these issues been? These and other questions will be asked by the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee as it hears from witnesses for a short inquiry on arms control.

The evidence session will take place virtually and can be followed on Parliament TV from 3pm on Friday 2 October 2020.

Giving evidence will be:

3pm

• Alexandra Bell, Senior Policy Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation;
• Dr Patricia Lewis, Research Director, Conflict, Science & Transformation and Director, International Security Programme, Chatham House; and
• Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Founder and President of the Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation.

4pm

• Lord Browne of Ladyton, former Secretary of State for Defence and Vice-Chair, Nuclear Threat Initiative and;
• Rose Gottemoeller, former Deputy Secretary General, North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Other questions to be posed include:

• How important is the Open Skies Treaty to strategic stability, and what are its most important provisions?
• In your opinion, is Russia in breach of the Open Skies Treaty?
• What is your assessment of the likelihood that New START may be extended? How significant were the recent talks between the US and Russia on this issue? What are the key issues to resolve?
• What actions can the UK Government take to encourage the US to reconsider its decision to leave the Open Skies Treaty, and to urge both the US and Russia to extend New START? How effective has UK advocacy on these issues been, and what more could be done?

Notes to Editors

1. The Committee is chaired by Baroness Anelay.
   
2. The Open Skies Treaty permits each state party to conduct short-notice, unarmed, reconnaissance flights over the others' entire territories to collect data on military forces and activities. Countries agree on image resolution, sensor equipment, annual flight plans, flight routes, and even the observation planes themselves. Images collected are available to all parties. The intensive cooperation and coordination demanded by the treaty produces knock-on benefits of confidence-building. In May, the Trump Administration announced that the US will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty in November, citing issues with Russian implementation of the treaty.
   
3. New START is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation. It limits each side to no more than 800 deployed and non-deployed land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers and deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers equipped to carry nuclear armaments. It is due to expire in 2021.
   
4. Previous Committee sessions can be watched back on Parliament TV.
   
5. The International Relations and Defence Committee recently published its report into the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa