Arms Treaty between the U.S. and Russia

 Transcript from The Situation Room aired March 25,2010

President Obama is calling it the most comprehensive arms control agreement in nearly two decades. He and his national security team announced the new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia today. The 10-year pact reduces by one third the nuclear weapons that the U.S. and Russia will deploy. The president finalized the deal with the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, over the phone today. The two leaders will sign the agreement on April 8th in Prague.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With this agreement, the United States and Russia, the two largest nuclear powers in the world, also send a clear signal that we intend to lead. By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities.


BLITZER: All right. Let's talk about this with our senior political analyst, David Gergen.

It's the first time in 20 years an important deal like this has been worked out.

Give us a little bit of the bigger picture how the president is doing on the international stage right now.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: I think that most foreign policy experts and the American public at large think he's doing better on foreign policy than he is on domestic policy. He continually gets higher marks, as you know.

BLITZER: He's got more bipartisan support...

GERGEN: He's got more bipartisan...

BLITZER: -- on Iraq and Afghanistan, for example.

GERGEN: That's right. But I think, Wolf, this was a particularly important week for the administration, not only on health care, but their plate was very full with international issues. First, with the Israelis, which did not go well. But then the...

BLITZER: And it went very badly.

GERGEN: That went badly.

BLITZER: How badly did it go?

GERGEN: Very strained relations right now. The administration is waiting to see what Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to do next. He's been back meeting with his -- his top people. They basically told me today he's trying to be all things to all people. He's got to make some decisions here pretty soon. And we don't know quite which way he's going to come down. So they're waiting, too (INAUDIBLE)...

BLITZER: Yes. Yesterday when I spoke to Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, he said there was progress.

GERGEN: Yes.

BLITZER: That was the word he used. I spoke to another administration official who basically said -- like that.

GERGEN: That's sort of a little...

BLITZER: Yes.

GERGEN: -- below the line, in this case.

BLITZER: Doing very little progress.

GERGEN: Yes.

BLITZER: I mean there's a tense relationship.

GERGEN: Absolutely. But -- but, Wolf, there are two other relationships that the did go very much in -- in a very good direction for the administration this week. In fact, one of the president's top advisers said he had never seen, in his long lifetime in international affairs, such a turnaround in relation to the United States as we've seen in the last year-and-a-half, with two countries -- Pakistan and the Russians.

And with Pakistan, as you know, you just had a major interview...

BLITZER: We had the foreign minister of Pakistan on yesterday.

GERGEN: Right.

BLITZER: And this relationship, if you remember, it was awful. Certainly before 9/11 it was awful, but it's improved steadily. And in the last few months, it's improved dramatically.

I was told if the U.S. is going to capture bin Laden any time soon -- and they believe that they're getting closer and closer -- it will be precisely because of this cooperation with the Pakistanis.

GERGEN: That's right. Well, they -- they certainly seemed, they -- a few weeks ago, they said we're starting to see traction now. Remember, the Pakistanis began to cooperate in going after the Taliban, not only who has threatened them, but who threatened in Afghanistan. And Pakistan is seen by many as the key to Afghanistan...
BLITZER: Critical.

GERGEN: Yes, sure. So that's a big plus. But...

BLITZER: And Russia is a huge plus, too.

GERGEN: But the other big plus is -- is Russia. And this is one in which the United States came in -- you know, the president's -- President Obama said we need to hit the reset button on our relationship with the Russians. And they've been working hard on that.

They've got critics here in the United States -- some conservatives who think they're caving in too much. But he's been -- been engaged in confidence measures about missile defense and about Iran. And now today they've got this -- this understanding and breakthrough on the nuclear arms reduction.

As you say, it's -- it's a big reduction, but it's part of the bigger plan. And it's interesting.

I asked a major adviser to the president today, how did this get done?

Who deserves a lot of the credit?

And they said, well, we have really good teams working on both sides, but in this case, another woman came through for President Obama.

BLITZER: Who is that?

GERGEN: And this is a woman named Ellen Tauscher. She is a former Congresswoman from California. And before that, she was one of the only women on the New York -- to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. She came into the State Department working for Hillary Clinton, has been the under secretary and, apparently, really helped to bring these -- treaty -- this treaty to a conclusion.

BLITZER: Good for Ellen Tauscher.

GERGEN: Absolutely.

BLITZER: She's been a frequent guest here in THE SITUATION ROOM over the years.

Thanks very much, David.

GERGEN: Thank you.

Have a good night.

BLITZER: Thanks for that.

They've got their work cut out with Iran, North Korea. Not everything is working out great.
GERGEN: Absolutely. But (INAUDIBLE)...

BLITZER: But they've got...

GERGEN: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: They've got issues.

GERGEN: They've got a big agenda ahead on the nuclear side...

BLITZER: Yes.

GERGEN: -- to try to make it move toward a nuclear-free world.

BLITZER: Because this arms agreement with Russia is important.

Thanks very much.

GERGEN: Thank you.