Russia, US agree on nuclear arms cuts

RUSSIA: The Russian and US leaders Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama on Monday announced agreements on Afghanistan and cutting their nuclear arsenals as they sought a new era in battered relations.

The ex-Cold War foes issued a declaration on replacing a key disarmament treaty — including figures for major cuts in nuclear warheads — and clinched a breakthrough deal for US military transit for Afghanistan across Russia.

But as Obama made his first visit to Moscow as president, they still remained divided over US plans to install a missile defence shield in eastern Europe and Moscow’s policy towards the pro-Western ex-Soviet state Georgia.

“The president and I agreed that the relationship between Russia and the United States (has suffered) from a sense of drift,” Obama said at joint news conference in the Kremlin with Medvedev.

“We resolved to reset US-Russian relations. Today after less than six months of collaboration (since coming to office) we have done exactly that,” he added.

The declaration signed by the presidents pledges to reach a new nuclear arms reduction pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Obama said it provides for cuts of “up to a third” from current limitations. It “commits both parties to a legally binding treaty that will reduce nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement.

START is due to expire on December 5 but the declaration gave no target date for a renewal, instructing negotiators to complete the work as quickly as possible.

The declaration called for a reduction in the number of nuclear warheads in Russian and US strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years and the number of ballistic missile carriers to between 500-1,100.

The cuts go beyond those levels set in the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) which calls for both countries to reduce the number of deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 on either side by 2012.

“The declared reduction is a real agreement and it suits everyone,” said Alexei Malashenko, analyst with the Carnegie Centre in Moscow. -

Moscow, Tuesday, AFP