Russia - US Nuke Progress

“We are, I think, very close to having an agreement on a START treaty, but won’t have one until President Obama and his counterpart, [Russian President Dmitry] Medvedev, have a chance to speak,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said at a press briefing March 24. The two leaders are expected to confer by telephone March 26.
The United States and Russia have been negotiating a new treaty to replace the expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, signed in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The new 10-year treaty aims to reduce both nuclear arsenals to a range of 1,500 to 1,675 nuclear warheads, and cap long-range missiles and strategic bombers to 700 each.
Obama spoke with Medvedev for about 30 minutes by telephone March 13 and “had a good conversation” about the progress made by negotiators from both countries who are meeting in Geneva, National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said. At issue are a series of highly technical matters that require careful discussion, he added.
“The results of their talks are encouraging, and both leaders are committed to concluding an agreement soon,” Hammer said.
Gibbs said White House advisers have discussed returning to Prague, where Obama first announced his intention to pursue a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons, to sign a new treaty.
“We believe that a new START treaty begins to take many important steps between the two greatest holders of those nuclear weapons,” Gibbs told reporters. “So I would anticipate that when we have something to sign, it will be in Prague.”
The new treaty is not expected to restrict U.S. plans for a limited missile defense shield based in Europe.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the committee, met with Obama and his advisers for about an hour March 24 and received a full briefing on the proposed treaty and the support needed to win approval in the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority. Any new treaty would also have to be approved by the Russian Duma before becoming law; the approval process could take months.
“A well-designed treaty will send an important message to the rest of the world that America is prepared to lead efforts with key stakeholders to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons,” Kerry said after the meeting with Obama. “Once the treaty and its associated documents are completed and submitted to the Senate, Senator Lugar and I look forward to holding hearings and giving the treaty immediate and careful attention.”
Lugar said the president is confident of signing a new treaty, which runs about 20 pages and contains a series of protocols or annexes.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that negotiators in Geneva are extremely close to a final treaty. The original talks on the treaty were held in April 2009 in London when Obama met with Medvedev at the outset of the Group of 20 talks on the global economic crisis.
PRAGUE VISION
On April 5, 2009, Obama announced in a major speech at Hradcany Square in Prague that he envisioned a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons and would make reducing that threat a signature piece of his foreign policy agenda.
“Today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama told the Prague audience. “I’m not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly — perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change.”
In agreeing to reduce nuclear arsenals, the United States and Russia are aiming to ease tensions substantially and strengthen mutual trust — both critical ingredients for enhanced relations.
“We’ve taken important steps forward to increase nuclear security and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. This starts with the reduction of our own nuclear arsenals,” Obama said at a July 6 press conference in Moscow with Medvedev.
As owners of more than 95 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons, Obama said, the world’s two leading nuclear powers must lead by example. The mutual agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals is part of a broader goal of reducing nuclear tensions across the globe, and of preventing rogue states and extremists from obtaining nuclear material.
During talks in London April 1, 2009, before the start of the G20 economic summit, Obama and Medvedev said they wanted to take concrete steps toward the long-term goal of disarmament, while sending a powerful message to countries such as North Korea and Iran, whose controversial nuclear-development programs are subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions and expanded scrutiny.
This new treaty would expand on the 2002 Moscow Treaty signed by then-President George W. Bush and then-President Vladimir Putin that limited warheads to 2,200 by the close of 2012.

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