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More Russia-U.S. arms reduction talks due in late June

RIA Novosti

14:4004/06/2009 MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - The third round of comprehensive Russia-U.S. talks on a new strategic arms reduction pact will take place in late June in Geneva, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The second round of discussions on a replacement for the START 1 treaty, which is set to expire on December 5, took place on June 1-3 in Geneva.

"A broad range of matters related to the preparation of a future agreement was discussed during the talks," the ministry said.

Rose Gottemoeller, who led the U.S. delegation in the three-day round, said they had held "productive talks with our Russian counterparts, working towards this START follow-on agreement."

"We had very productive talks and we expect that productive trajectory to continue," she told Reuters.

The Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (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 agreement, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed during their London meeting in early April on an immediate start to talks on a new strategic arms reduction treaty.

The first round of full-format negotiations was held in Moscow on May 19-21, and the sides described it as a success. The Russian delegation to the negotiations is headed by Anatoly Antonov, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Security and Disarmament.

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 said the United States had 5,576 warheads and 1,198 delivery vehicles.

Russia, which proposed a new arms reduction agreement with the U.S. in 2005, expects Washington 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.