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US, Russia Finalize START Treaty

   VOA News  February 05, 2011
   US  Secretary  of  State  Hillary  Rodham Clinton, right, and Russia's
   Foreign  Minister  Sergey  Lavrov smile after finalizing the New START
   treaty  during  the  Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Germany,
   February 5, 2011

Photo: AP

   US  Secretary  of  State  Hillary  Rodham Clinton, right, and Russia's
   Foreign  Minister  Sergey  Lavrov smile after finalizing the New START
   treaty  during  the  Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Germany,
   February 5, 2011

   The U.S. and Russia have put in force the new Strategic arms reduction
   treaty  (START) that will limit the number of nuclear warheads the two
   countries can possess.
   During a ceremony Saturday in Munich, Germany, U.S. Secretary of State
   Hillary  Clinton  and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov exchanged
   ratification documents, formally enacting the new treaty.
   The  ceremony  took  place  on  the sidelines of a security conference
   being held in Munich.
   Clinton  has  called the agreement "the kind of clear-eyed cooperation
   that is in everyone's interest."Â  Lavrov said the treaty will enhance
   international stability.
   The  new  treaty  restricts  each  nation  to  1,550 strategic nuclear
   warheads, a 30 percent reduction from limits set in 2002.
   U.S.  President  Barack  Obama  and  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
   signed the treaty last April to replace an arms control pact signed in
   the waning days of the Cold War in 1991.
   U.N.  Secretary-General  Ban Ki-Moon praised both Presidents Obama and
   Medvedev for showing leadership on the nuclear arms reduction issue.
   The  new  START  agreement was approved by the U.S. Senate in December
   and passed the Russian parliament last month.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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