Russia-US treaty ready soon
2010-03-13 22:35
Moscow - US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev believe Washington and Moscow are close to reaching agreement on a new nuclear disarmament treaty, the Kremlin said Saturday.
US and Russian negotiators have been meeting in Geneva to discuss a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms pact which expired in December.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday, both presidents "expressed satisfaction with the highly advanced state of preparations" for the new accord, the Kremlin said in a statement.
During their talks, "it was stressed that it is already possible to set firm dates to submit the draft agreement to the heads of state for their signature," it said, without giving a specific timeframe.
Medvedev and Obama "agreed to give additional instructions to the delegations" with a view to finalising a deal, it said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to discuss Start with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov when she visits Moscow on Thursday and Friday.
Signed in 1991, Start led to huge reductions in the US and Russian nuclear arsenals and imposed verification measures to build trust between the two former Cold War foes.
The broad outlines of a replacement treaty have been clear since July, when Obama and Medvedev agreed to slash the number of warheads on either side to between 1 500 and 1 675.
The United States has said it currently has some 2 200 nuclear warheads, while Russia is believed to have about 3 000.
Range of disagreements
But the talks have been complicated by disagreements over a range of issues, including US plans for a missile defence system in eastern Europe.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Obama had been "frustrated" after a February phone call with Medvedev, who told him Moscow wanted to reopen issues that Washington had thought settled, including the missile shield.
Russia's foreign ministry later denied that disagreements over the missile defence system were holding up the negotiations.
Agreeing a replacement for the treaty has been a foreign-policy priority for the Obama administration and a deal would help bolster the US leader's stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
But a White House spokesperson hinted this week that US negotiators would not rush the Start talks just to get a new deal signed before April, when Obama hosts a nuclear non-proliferation summit in Washington.