I keep hearing that there have been four rounds of START Follow On negotiations — but that omits two Presidential Summits, a meeting between lead negotiators in Rome and at least two “experts” meetings.
So I’ve tried to collect all of the START Follow On related meetings here, with dates and locations.
Corrections and/or additions are welcome.
START Follow-On Meetings
| Round | Locale | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | Geneva | 13-21 November 2008 | Initial meeting of experts |
| – | London | 1 April 2009 | Obama-Medvedev at G20 |
| – | Rome | 24 April 2009 | Introductory meeting |
| I | Moscow | 19-20 May 2009 | First Round |
| II | Geneva | 1-3 June 2009 | Second Round |
| – | Moscow | 15-16 June 2009 | Interim meeting of experts |
| III | Geneva | 22-24 June 2009 | Third Round |
| – | Moscow | 6-7 July 2009 | Obama-Medvedev Summit |
| IV | Geneva | 22-24 July 2009 | Fourth Round |
There were several preliminary meetings among officials before the London O-M summit. One involved USS Burns in Moscow; later Sec Clinton met with FM Lavrov. Sorry, don’t recall the dates. There were probably other official meetings/contacts during that early period also. The Russians also sent clear signals to the new administration late in 2008 concerning their desired parameters for the START follow-on. A Russian delegation met with Americans at Carnegie in November; both Gottemoeller and Einhorn attended as private citizens as neither had been named to anything as yet. Also, Lavrov met with Bill Perry, Nunn etc in December in Moscow and conveyed the same message.
There were also numerous meetings during the Bush Administration, going back to 2006. They were at the Secretary, undersec, and Assistant Sec level.