Medvedev: Russia, US should ratify START treaty
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Russia and the United States should ratify the new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) simultaneously, President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday.
"I consider it extremely important. We must synchronize the ratification procedures for the relevant documents," the Interfax news agency quoted Medvedev as telling parliamentary leaders.
"We cannot allow a situation which once happened during the Soviet period when the Soviet Union ratified these documents and the U.S. did not," he said. "I think this is something our American partners should know about."
The president also spoke positively of the current negotiations between the two countries.
"Negotiations will continue," he said. "They are tough, but in general we have agreed on many points with the Americans. We have taken quite serious steps forward and have brought our positions closer together to a considerable extent."
Russia and the United States have exerted intense efforts trying to clinch a deal on a replacement document to the START-1 that expired Dec. 5, 2009.
The talks are expected to resume in the second half of this month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said earlier.
The START-1, signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, obliged both sides to reduce the number of their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.
The new treaty's outline agreed by the two presidents at a July summit in Moscow included slashing nuclear arsenals to 1,500 to 1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500 to 1,000.
The new document has not been signed yet mainly due to disagreements on verification and control arrangements to be included in the document, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Medvedev also stressed the significance of the new START treaty for Russia, and expressed readiness to discuss the issue with parliamentary leaders.
"This is a foreign policy issue, but it is of extreme importance and will, in the final analysis, determine the face of Russia for years to come," he said.
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