Russia, US resume arms control talks
Russia: Russia and the United States were set to meet Wednesday in
Geneva for another round of talks on arms control, although Washington
insists on deploying a missile shield in Eastern Europe which Moscow
says poses a threat to its strategic security.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said talks would
address the interrelation between strategic offensive armaments and
defensive armaments, nondeployment of strategic armaments outside
national territory and the issue of strategic armaments with non-nuclear
equipment.
The meeting is expected to continue through Friday.
Earlier this month, US President Barack Obama and Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev agreed to seek arsenal reductions in a successor to the
1991 arms control pact (START I), which is set to expire on Dec. 5. The
leaders vowed to pursue a deal that would cut each nation's deployed
nuclear arsenal to between 1,500 and 1,675 warheads and 500 to 1,100
delivery vehicles.
The main obstacle to an eventual agreement, though, is
Washington?(tm)s plan to deploy 10 ground base interceptors, plus 96
Patriot missiles and 100 troops to man the batteries in Poland. The US
missile defense system includes the installation of a radar system in
the Czech Republic.
Russia objects to the anti-missile shield plan, warning that it will
deploy a short-range missile system in its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad
bordering Poland, in response to the US plan. Moscow, Prensa Latina
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