Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff hopes new START will be signed

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Itar-Tass) -- A new strategic offensive arms
reduction treaty that should replace START-1 may be adopted within weeks,
the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen said.
Mullen said he was seriously engrossed in this work and described
START-1 as historically very successful.
He expressed hope that the new treaty would be signed within weeks and
that it, too, would reduce the number of weapons.
The admiral admitted that the existing arsenals in the United States
and Russia were enough to destroy each other.
Citing the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, experts say that as of
the beginning of 2009 the U.S. had 2,200 operationally deployed nuclear
warheads and Russia about 2,790.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have
agreed to reduce their number to 1,500-1,675.
Medvedev said on Monday that Russia and the United States were close
to coming to agreement practically on all issues concerning a new START
treaty.
"We have moved to the final stage of the talks and are working out the
nuances in the text, and have spent less than a year on that," he said.
"I hope that the talks will be completed shortly, and the
non-proliferation summit to be held in the U.S. [on April 12-13] will also
made a new contribution to this process," the president said.
The Russian-American START talks have made considerable progress on a
number of issues and the next round will begin on March 9, the Russian
Foreign Ministry said earlier this week.
"For the purpose of finalising the future treaty and presenting it to
the presidents of Russia and the United States for signing, the parties
agreed to continue official negotiations in Geneva from March 9," the
ministry said.
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