US: New START with Russia in sight

The White House has expressed satisfaction with the latest round of ‘productive’ talks with Russia on a new nuclear weapons disarmament treaty.

The US National Security Council Spokesman, Michael Hammer, said Friday that the negotiations to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that expired December, 2009 are in the final phase.

“What you will see in the coming weeks is our negotiating teams coming together to finalize the details. But we are certainly optimistic that the START agreement is within reach,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

His comments come a day after US National Security Advisor James Jones and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen held two days of clandestine discussions in Moscow with their Russian counterparts in order to strike a possible nuclear weapons reduction deal.

Russian authorities have also sounded positive on a feasible accord, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying on Friday, “The remaining questions, I hope, will be resolved rather promptly when the negotiations resume, and they will resume at the very beginning of February, I think.”

The 1991 START prohibited its two signatories from deploying an excess of 6,000 nuclear warheads as well as maintaining a combined number of 1,600 intercontinental ballistic missiles, sea-based ballistic missiles, and bombers each.

The US and Russian military heads also discussed a range of other issues, including Iran, Afghanistan and US missile shield.

Kremlin and the White House leaders seek to cut nuclear warheads to between 1,500 and 1,675 and the number of strategic weapons delivery vehicles to between 500 and 1,100.