MOSCOW: The second round of full-format Russia-U.S. talks on a new strategic arms reduction agreement to replace the START 1 treaty, which is set to expire on December 5, 2009, will be held on June 1-3 in Geneva.
The team of U.S. negotiators at the talks will be led by Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller while the Russian delegation is headed by Anatoly Antonov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Security and Disarmament.
The sides described the first round of negotiations in Moscow on May 19-21 a “success,” and agreed to submit the results of work on a new treaty at a Russian-U.S. summit in Moscow in early July.
Signed in 1991, START 1 obliges Russia and the United States to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each.
In 2002, a follow-up agreement on strategic offensive arms reduction was concluded in Moscow. The deal, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
According to a report published by the U.S. State Department in April, as of January 1 Russia had 3,909 nuclear warheads and 814 delivery vehicles, including ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers.
The same report stated the United States had 5,576 warheads and 1,198 delivery vehicles.
Moscow, which proposed a new arms reduction agreement with Washington in 2005, expects the United States to agree on a deal that would restrict not only the numbers of nuclear warheads but also place limits on all existing kinds of delivery vehicles.
“The final result of the talks should certainly be a step forward compared to the current regime of limitations,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said.
