Arms Control Experts Applaud Announcement of New Nuclear Reductions Treaty with Russia

Today, the Obama
Administration announced that negotiations for the text of the most
significant nuclear reductions treaty between the United States and
Russia in decades are complete. President Barack Obama and Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev will sign the agreement on April 8 in Prague,
Czech Republic.

"We welcome
the announcement of the completion of a new Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty to reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons in United States and
Russia," said the Center's Executive Director John Isaacs.
"This is a huge step forward in advancing the bipartisan nuclear
security agenda that the President outlined in Prague in April 2009 to
reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons."

That agenda included
three primary objectives: to reduce and eventually eliminate existing
nuclear weapons stockpiles, prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons
to new states, and prevent nuclear weapons-usable materials from
falling into the hands of terrorists. Reductions in the United States
and Russia are they key to moving forward on the first goal.

"This
agreement demonstrates the Administration's commitment to moving away
from Cold War era stockpiles and reducing the number of nuclear weapons
in the two countries that currently possess more than 95% of those
remaining in the world," added Leonor Tomero, the Center's
director of nuclear non-proliferation. "It is a key element of
the President's efforts to effectively address the most pressing threat
to the United States: the danger that nuclear weapons might spread to
other countries or to terrorists or that a nuclear weapon might be
detonated by accident."

This foreign policy
victory builds on the domestic victory of the Administration this week
on health care. "A stronger President on health care is a
stronger President to move forward this nuclear security agenda,"
Isaacs said. "We look for a Senate vote on the treaty this
year. The sooner the treaty enters into force, the sooner important
verification procedures can be up and running again."