Backgrounder: Key facts about new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms reduction treaty

2010-04-12 17:02 BJT

BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Russia signed a new nuclear arms reduction treaty in the Czech capital of Prague on Thursday.

The new deal will replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), which obliged each of the two nuclear powers to reduce its nuclear warheads to less than 6,000 and launchers to less than 1,600.

The START I took effect in December 1994 and expired on Dec. 5, 2009.

The United States and Russia have been working on the new arms control deal since U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met in London in April 2009.

Both agreed to immediately begin bilateral intergovernmental negotiations to work out a "new, comprehensive, legally binding agreement" to replace START I.

On May 19-21, 2009, the two countries held the first round of talks in Moscow on the new arms reduction deal. Two more rounds of talks were held later in Geneva in June 2009.

In July 2009, Obama and Medvedev agreed at a summit in Moscow on the outline of the treaty, including slashing their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.

Despite rounds of negotiations, the two sides failed to reach a new pact before START I treaty expired in late 2009.

On Dec. 4, 2009, one day before the expiration date, Medvedev and Obama said in a joint statement that the two countries will continue to work on the deal.

On March 26, 2010, Obama announced that the new U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty has finally been hammered out after a year of intense negotiations, with the two sides agreeing to reduce their deployed nuclear warheads by 30 percent to 1,550.

Editor: Jin Lin | Source: Xinhua