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Europeans, Russia Urge US Senate to Ratify START Treaty

   Lisa Bryant | Lisbon 20 November 2010
   From  left,  NATO  Secretary  General  Anders  Fogh Rasmussen, Russian
   President  Dmitry  Medvedev  and  Portuguese PM Jose Socrates are seen
   prior  to  participating  in  a  NATO Russia Council meeting at a NATO
   summit in Lisbon, 20 Nov 2010

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

   From  left,  NATO  Secretary  General  Anders  Fogh Rasmussen, Russian
   President  Dmitry Medvedev and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates
   are  seen prior to participating in a NATO Russia Council meeting at a
   NATO summit in Lisbon on Saturday Nov. 20, 2010.

   Europeans  urged  early  ratification  of a new nuclear defense treaty
   between  the  United  States and Russia during a NATO summit in Lisbon
   amid  announcements  that  Moscow  would  begin  working  with NATO on
   missile defense.
   After  receiving  strong  support  from  NATO  partners  for the START
   treaty,  along  with  endorsement from top military figures and former
   administration  officials,  President  Barack  Obama told reporters in
   Lisbon  there  was  no  good reason why the U.S. Senate should not now
   ratify  the  treaty.  "And  my hope is we will do so. There's no other
   reason  not  to do it other than the fact that Washington has become a
   very  partisan  place and this is a classic area where we have to rise
   above partisanship," he said.
   Republican  senators  have  been reluctant to endorse the deal, with a
   key  Republican lawmaker saying they needed more time. But a number of
   European  countries,  along with Russia, say it is critical the treaty
   is  ratified  in  a  timely manner. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
   Rasmussen warned that European security was at stake.
   Rasmussen also announced that Russia had agreed to cooperate with NATO
   on  missle  defense.   He  called  the  agreement  a turning point in
   once-hostile  NATO-Russian  relations that were most recently strained
   over  Georgia.  "The  practical  benefits  are  clear.  By  exchanging
   information  that we share, a bigger, wider picture of the skies above
   Europe we get more warning of a threat and we could, conceivably, even
   cooperate eventually in shooting down an incoming missile," he said.
   In  later  remarks  to  the  press,  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
   stopped short of fully endorsing the Europe-U.S. missle defense shield
   which  would protect Europe against missile attack possibly from Iran.
   Mr.  Medvedev  said Russia was awaiting more details about the missile
   shield and would only cooperate as a full partner.
   Separately,  Mr.  Obama  did  not  close  the door to a continued U.S.
   combat presence in Afghanistan after 2014, despite NATO's agreement to
   hand  over  full security responsibility to Afghans by the end of that
   year.  "Certainly  our footprint will have been significantly reduced.
   But beyond that, it's hard to anticipate what is going to be necessary
   to  keep  the  American  people  safe  as  of  2014.  I'll  make  that
   determination when I get there," he said.
   Mr.  Obama  expressed  satisfaction  about  new  commitments  by  NATO
   partners to send trainers to beef up Afghan security forces, including
   some from Canada and Italy.
   President  Obama  said the United States will be hosting the next NATO
   summit in 2012.

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