Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lent a nudge of support to the stalled START treaty Friday, saying he hopes the Senate will consider it next week before the end of the lame-duck congressional session.
“We are very close,” he said in a speech Friday at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, urging leaders to take a broader look at the U.S.-Russia relationship and questioning attempts by President Barack Obama and his two predecessors to “reset” it.
“For two decades, the question has been asked repeatedly: How can the United States forge a constructive global partnership with Russia? It still isn’t clear,” McCain said. “So, perhaps it is time to start asking some different questions.”
The ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee added that a thorough assessment of U.S.-Russia relations has been chronically lacking because progress tends to be exaggerated.
“Just look at the new START treaty,” he said. “It is a modest accomplishment, but it has been so overhyped that you would think it is the administration’s most important foreign policy success to date — and that its ultimate ratification would be so consequential as to tip the balance of power within the Kremlin to America’s favor.”
The Strategic Armed Reduction Treaty, which requires 67 votes for approval in the Senate, has been stalled primarily over largely Republican concerns about nuclear modernization. It’s now caught up in the end-of-the-year rush to pass legislation, but continues to pick up support from foreign policy heavyweights.
Earlier this week, for instance, former President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered their blessings.
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