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Russia and US to resume nuclear reduction talks
Moscow (AFP) Oct 18, 2009 Russia and the United States resume talks Monday in Geneva to thrash out a new agreement on limiting their nuclear arsenals, amid signs they are moving towards an accord. Negotiators from the former Cold War foes come together for the latest meeting in negotiations aimed at replacing or renewing the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a cornerstone of arms control between the two countries. Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this year to reach a new nuclear deal to succeed START, which was hammered out in the dying days of the Soviet Union and expires on December 5. Monday's talks are the seventh round in the marathon negotiations. The process is an attempt to reach agreement between two countries whose relations were severely tested under the administration of the former US president George W. Bush. Efforts to forge a new nuclear disarmament pact are also in line with a pledge made by US President Barack Obama in April during a speech in Prague to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons. The last round of talks, which ended on October 2, lasted an unprecedented two weeks, compared to earlier sessions which lasted only three or four days. Negotiations have so far been shrouded in secrecy, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last Tuesday indicated they were going in a positive direction. "We have made substantial movement forward," Lavrov said at a joint press conference in Moscow with visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Russia and the United States are committed to continuing their efforts to get the job done by the December 5 deadline, the minister said. Several days earlier, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the chances of reaching a deal by the deadline were "not bad". "We have given our negotiators the task of finishing a deal in time. I think the chances are really not bad," Medvedev said in a interview with Russia's Channel One state television network. He also praised the new US president for being more interested in disarmament than his predecessor, George W. Bush, saying that with the new administration "there is definitely a chance to reach a deal." Medvedev also cautioned it would be "necessary to show wisdom on both sides", however. The negotiations had been complicated by US plans to deploy missile defence facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic, which Moscow viewed as a threat. But America's decision to scrap the project last month -- which was thought up by the previous US administration -- should be a boost to the anti-proliferation talks, according to analysts. At a Moscow summit in July, Medvedev and Obama agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in Russian and US strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years. They also agreed to cut the number of ballistic missile carriers to between 500 and 1,100 Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
US documents point to secret Japan nuclear pactWashington (AFP) Oct 13, 2009 Despite decades of denials by Washington and Tokyo, US officials believe they enjoyed a secret pact to transport nuclear weapons through Japan, newly declassified documents showed. The disclosure came after Japan's left-leaning government ended more than half a century of conservative rule and launched a probe into thousands of files to settle longstanding suspicions of a hush-hush pact. ... read more |
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