Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agree to cut their countries' nuclear arsenals by end of year

[kpete]

Source: Guardian UK


Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev agree to cut their countries' nuclear arsenals by end of year

Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have pledged to agree cuts in their countries' nuclear arsenals by December this year, as part of a "fresh start" in US-Russian relations and a step towards "a nuclear free world".

After a meeting between the two men in London, on the eve of the G20 summit, President Obama also accepted an invitation to fly to Moscow in July, by which time both sides hope negotiators from both countries will have worked out an arms control deal to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expires on 5 December. The negotiators were told to begin work at once.

There were no specific figures in the statements issued after the meeting at Whitfield House, the US embassy residence, but the two leaders agreed that the new deal will go further than the Moscow Treaty that their predecessors, George Bush and Vladimir Putin agreed in 2002. The treaty stipulates operationally deployed (ready to fire) arsenals of 1,700-2,200 warheads, suggesting the goal of a new treaty would be to go below 1,700, and a target figure mentioned as a possibility by both sides is 1,500 warheads each.

In fact any new deal is likely to be far stricter than the Moscow Treaty, which was full of holes in arms control terms. It did not apply to non-operational stockpiles, so each side could comply by simply mothballing warheads. They did not have to destroy them. There was also no verification mechanisms, which give most disarmament treaties their teeth, and either side could pull out with only three months' notice. The new deal, according to the joint will be "comprehensive" and "legally binding".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/us-russia-nuclear-deal

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. yeah right " a target figure mentioned as a possibility by both sides is 1,500 warheads each."

.
.
.

USA will NEVER let itself be outgunned willingly.

The USA will make sure it has more than the rest of the World put together

scenario:

USA and Russia reduce to equal arms.

Meanwhile, France, China, India, Pakistan and whomever else, keep and increase their arsenal - thereby having MORE than the USA

ain't gonna happen
______________________________________________________________________

Maybe Russia can just give all it's "extra" nukes to Iran, China, India and Pakistan.

LET'S GET THE SHOW ON THE ROAD! :sarcasm:

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Any agreement that moves the Doomsday clock away from midnight is a good

thing, even if it's not perfect. Much work has gone on behind the scenes for this outcome. Those kinds of lines of communication are what kept us from seeing a mushroom cloud over Cuba and Florida in 1962.
Now, if we can just keep securing nukes, and keep them out of the hands of terrorists...

the "clock": http://www.thebulletin.org/content/doomsday-clock/timeline

[Overseas]

3. Very glad President Obama is doing this

Glad to see him valuing diplomacy so much more than his predecessor.

Glad to read that this deal will be far stricter than the last one.

President Obama is committed to reducing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and is moving in the right direction.

[emad]

4. If a picture tells a thousand words.....

[SpartanDem]

5. more good news