White House: Nuclear Treaty With Russia Is 'Very Close'
VOA News 24 March 2010
U.S. President Barack Obama briefed top lawmakers Wednesday on nuclear treaty negotiations with Russia, in which the two sides appear to be close to full agreement.
Reports from Moscow say all elements of a new pact are complete. In Washington, the White House says full agreement is "very close," but that a formal announcement is several days away.
U.S. and Russian negotiators have been working for months on a new pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December.
The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs says the agreement will not be final until President Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, confer by telephone during the next few days.
A Kremlin source quoted by the Associated Press said negotiators already have agreed on the text of a treaty and a separate protocol.
The now-expired START agreement was signed before the breakup of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.
Earlier Wednesday, the Czech Republic said it has agreed to host a signing ceremony for a new U.S.-Russian treaty on nuclear arms, but that no date has been set.
Both Moscow and Washington have said for weeks that negotiations under way in Geneva are nearly complete. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week that all major differences have been resolved, and that negotiators are wrapping up technical matters.
The talks have a stated goal of reducing cutting each country's nuclear arsenal to between 1,500 and 1,675 "operationally deployed" warheads over the next seven years.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.
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