U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress on Saturday to approve a landmark arms deal treaty with Russia, warning that a failure to do so would be “a dangerous gamble with America's national security.”
Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the arms reduction treaty on April 8 in Prague to replace the START 1 agreement that expired in December 2009. But the results of November's elections to Congress, which saw the Republicans make big gains at the expense of the Democrats, may jeopardize ratification as the Republicans have repeatedly attempted to block Obama's initiatives.
"The choice is clear: a failure to ratify New START would be a dangerous gamble with America's national security, setting back our understanding of Russia's nuclear weapons, as well as our leadership in the world," Obama said during his weekly radio address.
Obama is due to meet Medvedev at a NATO summit in Lisbon on Saturday in the wake of an offer for Russia to participate in the creation of a comprehensive missile shield system. Russia has indicated that cooperation on the shield is “feasible.”
The new Russian-U.S. pact obligates both nations to cap their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.
WASHINGTON, November 20 (RIA Novosti)
