Posted on 03/24/2010 11:58:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON — President Obama and his Russian counterpart, President Dmitri A. Medvedev, have broken through a logjam in their arms control negotiations and expect to sign a new treaty in Prague next month that would slash American and Russian nuclear arsenals, officials from both nations said Wednesday.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev still need to talk once more to finalize the agreement, but officials were optimistic that the deal was nearly done.
The two sides have discussed a signing ceremony in Prague in early April, marking the anniversary of the first meeting between the two presidents and of Mr. Obama’s speech outlining his vision for eventually eliminating nuclear weapons.
The new pact would replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991, which expired in December, and would require both sides to reduce their warheads and launchers by more than one-quarter. The agreement is the most significant accomplishment so far for Mr. Obama’s policy of trying to “reset” relations with Russia. It is intended to pave the way for another more far-reaching round of reductions later in his term.
Neither the White House nor the Kremlin would formally comment on Wednesday, but officials on both sides confirmed that an agreement was close to done. A Kremlin official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was basic agreement on the text of the pact, although not all the wording had been finalized. He confirmed that Prague would be the likely location of a signing ceremony, although that too needed to be finalized.
Mr. Obama met at the White House on Wednesday morning with Senators John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the senior Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to brief them on the status of the treaty.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The treaty would require each side to reduce deployed strategic nuclear warheads to roughly 1,600, down from 2,200 now, officials have said. It would also oblige each side to reduce its arsenal of strategic bombers and land- and sea-based missiles to 800, half the old limit of 1,600.
Arms control advocates consider those reductions to be relatively modest. But Mr. Obama wanted to negotiate a relatively straightforward replacement for the Start treaty as a way to rebuild trust with Moscow, leading to more ambitious agreements down the road.
Breaking News: Neville Obama surrenders to Russia. Claims we’ll have “Peace in our time.”
And why do we want to “build trust” with Moscow?
Both parties are moving us toward zero nukes.
Bush slashed warheads from 6500 to around 2200.
Both parties suck big time.
At least today Russia is somewhat of a Christian country.
No need for verification of course.
Somehow I get the feeling that we’ll be the ones doing the slashing while the Ruskies do a build up.....
Yeah. So we’ll destroy our nuclear arsenal and Russia will agree to .....watch.
When have arms controls ever worked? My guess is slightly less than never.
Because they have been so helpful with Iran sanctions, of course.
“When have arms controls ever worked? My guess is slightly less than never”
To be clear, I don’t mean when have both sides stuck to the agreement, which probably comes in at nearly almost never. I mean when did the deals actually change anything? When did they make the world more peaceful? Because, let me tell you, if you go through with what you agreed to, it meant you were predisposed to do so. Which means ostensibly the agreeement accomplished nothing. No one ever agreed to and followed through on a deal they didn’t want to, without a gun to their head.
Obama’s “negotiating” tactic seems to be give concessions first, and then hope for results after the concessions.
He’s a very foolish and dangerous man.
They may be our allies in a war with either China, or possibly a coalition of Muslim states.
We dont need to be buddies, but its stupid to be total enemies.
Hence, this administration will make every attempt to preclude the public from learning the terms of this agreement before a signature is applied.
Sucks, doesn't it?
.
It just keeps getting worse.
Thats an interesting observation...
In the meanwhile.... Obama continues his muslim outreach and is giving them ALL kinds of technologies and allows Iran to continue their good research for their inalienable right to nuclear power.
It will be only a couple of weeks when they will have al quaeda visit us to demonstrate their newly fresh packaged nuclear suitcase nukes.
Obama is right on his game!
Breakthrough Is Reported in U.S. Arms Pact With Russia (Agreement for U.S.A. to slash nuclear arsenals)
Isn’t that the way its supposed to read?
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