Obama hails new nuke treaty with Russia

President Obama hailed a new nuclear deal with Russia today as "the most comprehensive arms control agreement in nearly two decades" and a major step toward his long-term goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

"Since taking office, one of my highest national security priorities has been addressing the threat posed to the American people by nuclear weapons," Obama said at the White House.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty would cut the countries' arsenals of nuclear weapons by about a third, Obama said. It also would cut the number of missiles and launchers.

Less than an hour after speaking with President Dmitry Medvedev, Obama said he and his Russian counterpart would sign the START on April 8 in Prague -- the same city where Obama gave a speech last year on nuclear non-proliferation.

Both the U.S. Senate and Russian Duma must ratify the agreement.

The president spoke while flanked by key members of his national security team: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Mike Mullen.

All three said the agreement protects U.S. national security, and they are prepared to make that case as the Senate takes up ratification.

Gates said he and others have spoken with senators throughout the year-long negotiations with the Russians and two major concerns have been addressed. The agreement does not constrain U.S. missile defense, nor does it affect the safety of the American nuclear stockpile, the Defense secretary said.

Obama discussed the details of the treaty this week with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In a statement, Kerry said he hopes the partisanship that infected the health care debate will not affect ratification of the number arms treaty. "We can't squander this opportunity to reset both our relations with Russia and our role as the world leader on nuclear non-proliferation," he said.

Lugar said he looks forward to hearings "to achieve ratification of the new treaty."

The agreement is another sign of a "reset" in Russian relations, Obama said. It helps build global objections to the nuclear development actions of nations such as Iran and North Korea.

Obama and Medvedev plan to sign what officials call the "New START" less than a week before the U.S. president hosts a summit on reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide.

Richard Burt, a former arms control negotiator and now U.S. chair of a pro-elimination group called Global Zero, said the treaty "will set the stage for further cuts in U.S. and Russian arsenals and multilateral negotiations for reductions by all nuclear weapons countries."

A nuclear-weapons-free world "will not be reached in the near future," Obama said, but he has an agenda to "stop the spread of these weapons, to secure vulnerable nuclear materials from terrorists and to reduce nuclear arsenals."


(As Posted by David Jackson)