Obama to Ink New START Ratification Text

Global Security Newswire: Obama to Ink New START Ratification Text
President Obama is set today to ink the U.S. ratification text for a new strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Feb. 1).

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed New START last April. The pact would require Moscow and Washington to each cap their deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550, down from a limit of 2,200 required by 2012 under an earlier treaty. It also would set a ceiling of 700 deployed warhead delivery systems, with another 100 allowed in reserve.

Russian and U.S. legislatures since late December have approved separate ratification documents placing various stipulations on the treaty's implementation by their respective governments. Medvedev has already signed his nation's ratification form.

The U.S. ratification document is expected to receive Obama's signature in the White House's Oval Office (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Feb. 1).

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are slated to exchange the ratification papers on Saturday, formally bringing the treaty into force, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday in a statement.

"A responsible partnership between the world’s two largest nuclear powers to limit our nuclear arsenals while maintaining strategic stability is imperative to promoting global security," Crowley said. "With New START, the United States and Russia have reached another milestone in our bilateral relationship and continue the momentum Presidents Obama and Medvedev created with the 'reset' nearly two years ago" (U.S. State Department release, Feb. 1).

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that the treaty "lays the foundation for qualitatively new relations between Russia and the United States in the military-strategic sphere, and contributes to a transition to a higher level of bilateral interaction in the spheres of disarmament and nonproliferation, as well as in strengthening mutual and global security," RIA Novosti reported (RIA Novosti, Feb. 1).