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No Russia-US arms cuts treaty ratification by Dec.5 - Mike McFaul

© RIA NovostiNo Russia-US arms cuts treaty ratification by Dec.5 - Mike McFaul
No Russia-US arms cuts treaty ratification by Dec.5 - Mike McFaul - Sputnik International
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Russia and the United States will not ratify a new treaty on strategic arms reductions by the time the previous treaty expires, the U.S. president's chief advisor on Russia said Sunday.

WASHINGTON, November 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the United States will not ratify a new treaty on strategic arms reductions by the time the previous treaty expires, the U.S. president's chief advisor on Russia said Sunday.

"We won't have a ratified treaty in place by December 5th. That has to go through our Senate, through their [lower house] Duma," National Security Council Senior Director for Russia Mike McFaul told U.S. journalists in Singapore.

However, he said: "In parallel, we have a bridging agreement that we also are working with the Russians. I fully suspect we'll be able to get that in place by December 5th."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed hope on Sunday that Russia and the United States would be able to sign a new nuclear arms reduction deal in December.

"We, indeed, devoted most of the time to discussing a treaty on the reduction of offensive armaments and recognized the need to provide additional impetus to these negotiations," Medvedev said after talks with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama at the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member states in Singapore.

The chief of the Russian General Staff said earlier that the ongoing arms cuts talks between Russia and the U.S. had seen differences on inspection and verification procedures.

Moscow and Washington are negotiating a replacement for the current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), the basis for Russian-U.S. strategic nuclear disarmament, which expires on December 5.

An outline of the new pact was agreed during the Russian and U.S. presidents' bilateral summit in Moscow in July and includes cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.

START I commits the parties to reducing their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up strategic arms reduction agreement was concluded in Moscow. The document, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.

 

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