Global Security Newswire

The top diplomats from Russia and the United States spoke by telephone yesterday to address ongoing efforts to prepare a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December, the Xinhua News Agency reported (see GSN, Feb. 5).

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged last July to cut their nations' respective strategic arsenals to between 1,500 and 1,675 deployed nuclear warheads under the new treaty. Negotiators have reportedly also agreed to reduce each state's arsenal of nuclear delivery vehicles -- missiles, submarines and bombers -- to between 700 and 800, down from the 1,100-vehicle limit set by the leaders in July.

In their telephone conversation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also discussed an the nuclear security summit planned for April in Washington, the nuclear standoff with Iran, and U.S. plans to field missile defenses in and around Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a press release (Xinhua News Agency, Feb. 9).

Disagreements over the planned European missile defenses are slowing efforts to reach agreement on the START replacement, Russian General Staff head Gen. Nikolai Makarov said today (Guy Faulconbridge, Reuters/Washington Post, Feb. 10).