UN/Treaties

Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and no friend of the Obama administration — said Thursday that he helped instigate the latest push to get the United States to accede to the United Nations's Law of the Sea Treaty.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) repeatedly drew attention to Donohue's support in a bid to deflect conservative attacks during his panel's fourth hearing on the treaty. Some critics have alleged that Kerry is pushing the treaty to ingratiate himself with the White House in order to gain the secretary of State job if President Obama is reelected. 

“Everybody's kind of got it wrong so far,” Kerry said. “I was actually out to dinner with Tom Donohue, maybe a year and a half ago ... and at the very end of the dinner Tom turned to me and said, 'when are you going to get this Law of the Sea Treaty done?' And I was completely taken aback.”

Advocates of an international arms sales treaty being written in the United Nations next month say they agree it shouldn't affect U.S. gun rights but that Republican demands go too far. 

In a speech before the Heritage Foundation last week, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) outlined several caveats he wants written into the treaty, including that it not apply to civilian arms and ammunition. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a coalition of human rights and evangelical groups said those restrictions would gut the treaty.

“This is where we part ways,” said Scott Stedjan, senior adviser for Oxfam America. “What is a civilian arm is a real concern. I don't think anybody wants the United Nations to define what is a civilian weapon is, what a military weapon is, because different countries have different views. That would never happen, plus small arms and light weapons are the weapons that … are wreaking the most havoc and that we most need control over.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) might not expect a vote on the Law of the Sea Treaty until after the November elections, but that isn’t stopping him from presenting his full-fledged case for the treaty. 

Kerry is bringing some big guns in for his committee’s fourth hearing in the past two months on the long-stalled treaty. The latest hearing will focus on the business community, which has mostly come out in support of the sea treaty.

The witness list for Thursday’s hearing is filled with top executives: the Chamber of Commerce’s Thomas Donohue, Verizon Communication’s Lowell McAdam, American Petroleum Institute’s Jack Gerard and National Association of Manufacturer’s Jay Timmons.

The United Nations is slated to craft a long-delayed international treaty next month.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

The United Nations' massive sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro ends today with little to show for it other than more recriminations between rich nations and developing countries, which accuse the West of eating up resources while leaving the rest to clean things up. Activists and many delegates blasted the document that will be signed at the conclusion of the three-day talks, saying it does nothing to tackle global climate change. [CBS News]

Some, however, point to hopeful signs that the United States and others are working in small, nimble groups to tackle the problem away from the talk-heavy halls of the United Nations. The G-8 endorsed that approach, championed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at its summit last month. [The Daily Beast]

Border crossing: The United States, fed up with a lack of cooperation from Pakistan, is considering cross-border raids with Afghan troops, The Associated Press reports. The idea comes as a Taliban attack on a lakeside resort near Kabul killed 20 people on Friday. The hotel was alleged to have sold alcohol and allowed mixed dancing. [The New York Times]

Winged migration: A Syrian pilot defected to Jordan, taking his Vietnam War-era MiG-21 with him. [The Washington Post]

President Obama “was really stating the obvious” when he told Russian leader Dmitri Medvedev that he'd have “more flexibility” to deal with Russia's concerns on missile defense after the election, the State Department's top arms-control official told Congress on Thursday.

“He was stating that during this 2012 election year — it's an election year both in the Russian Federation and in the United States of America — it's not going to be a year for breakthroughs,” Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “And so he was saying this will be a year that we get the technical experts together, we'll have some discussions about what cooperation may be possible [in the future].”

The March 26 episode has dogged the administration ever since, with some Republicans accusing Obama of having a “secret deal” with Russia to curtail plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. The criticism was back in force Thursday as senators weighed the effects of the New START nuclear disarmament treaty 18 months after passage.

“We cannot afford to be in the business we are in, on this committee or as a country, and be counting one representation for meeting commitments while on the other side we're seeing a wink and a nod to the other side,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.). “We've made a treaty not just with the Russian Federation but with the American people.”

Mounting tensions between the U.S. and Russia were on display Monday when presidents Obama and Putin spoke with reporters.

Top George W. Bush administration officials were divided at a hearing on whether the U.S. should ratify the pact.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will testify against a treaty supported by his old boss and the oil-and-gas industries. 

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Both sides of the Law of the Sea Treaty are bringing their big guns to the Capitol on Thursday. 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) has boasted of the star power of his first hearing on the issue, which will include a slew of four-star generals and admirals — 24 stars in all. Opponents countered by releasing a letter from retired commanders questioning the Obama administration's efforts to portray unified military support for joining the three-decade-old treaty.

“In your Foreign Relations Committee hearings to date, you have invited testimony from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and six other serving four-star commanders,” the letter reads. “We wish respectfully to challenge the perception that military personnel uniformly support this accord by expressing our strongly held belief that LOST’s ratification would prove inimical both to the national-security interests and sovereignty of the United States.”

In the afternoon, the panel will shift to a battle over President Ronald Reagan's legacy. Treaty advocates have invited former Reagan Deputy National Security Adviser John Negroponte to testify on behalf of the treaty, but Donald Rumsfeld — Reagan's emissary against the treaty back in 1982 — will argue against.