US-Russia Nuclear Reduction Agreement an "Important Step Forward"

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation today welcomed the
announcement of a new treaty to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty
(START) between the United States
and Russia.

While exact details of the new agreement are
not yet known, it is
reassuring to see that the two countries are moving ahead with nuclear
reductions after years of no progress.

However, two major obstacles remain to full
cooperation between the two
countries on nuclear disarmament. First, the two sides still strongly
disagree
on the US
missile defense plans, which would put missiles and radar installations
close
to the Russian border. It appears that the two countries have been able
to work
around the issue in this new treaty, but resolution of this issue is
essential to
making further progress toward nuclear weapon-free world.

Second, the US Senate must ratify the new
treaty with at least 67
votes. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation urges the Senate to ratify this
new
treaty without conditions that would undermine the disarmament progress
that
has been made. Some senators want to invest billions of dollars in new
nuclear
weapons production facilities in exchange for a "Yes" vote on
ratification.

David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation, said,
"This new treaty is an important step toward President Obama's
stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. After this agreement is
fully
implemented, however, there will still be sufficient nuclear weapons to
destroy
civilization and most life on the planet. We will still be living with
the
existential threat posed by nuclear weapons, which requires us now to
put the
issue of a Nuclear Weapons Convention at the forefront of the debate."

In a briefing booklet just published by the
Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation for the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review
Conference, the
Foundation calls on all signatory states of the NPT to commence
"negotiations
in good faith on a Nuclear Weapons Convention for the phased,
verifiable,
irreversible and transparent elimination of nuclear weapons, and
complete these
negotiations by the year 2015."

Dr. Krieger continued, "We believe that the
time is right for the
US and Russia to play a leadership role in
bringing the other countries of the world into negotiations for a
Nuclear
Weapons Convention."

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Notes:

1. To download a copy of the Foundation's new
briefing booklet
"Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament: Shifting the Mindset,"
please visit www.wagingpeace.org/goto/nptbooklet