US-Russia nuclear agreement close

Yayın tarihi 7 Aralık 2009

The Russian Foreign Ministry says talks with the United States on finding a replacement for the nuclear disarmament treaty are "coming to a close", just hours before the existing treaty, the START 1 agreement signed in 1991, is due to expire.

In spite of frenetic diplomatic activity between Washington and Moscow and the reset of relations between the two sides, it was always going to be difficult for a new arms control treaty to come into force before Friday's deadline, and so talks will continue after the old START agreement expires.

Kremlin sources appear optimistic that something can be agreed while President Obama is in Europe next week to receive his Nobel Peace Prize.

But the details of the new, complex agreement have not been finalised. It will also need to be ratified in both parliaments and that could take months. The United States has indicated that it wants an interim agreement to allow it to continue to observe Russia's nuclear arsenals once Friday's deadline passes. But that has also still not been formalised.

In July President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev signed a joint understanding that would see reductions of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 each within seven years of a new treaty, a huge cut on Soviet-era levels.

Tom Esslemont, BBC News, Moscow

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frenetic diplomatic activity yoğun diplomatik faaliyet, (burada) iki ülke ilişkilerini yönetenler arasında yapılan bir dizi üst düzey görüşme the reset of relations ilişkilerin baştan yeniden ve geçmişten farklı bir şekilde kurulması to come into force yürülüğe girmek deadline birşeyin yapılması için verilen son tarih expires süresi dolmak ratified resmen onaylanmış an interim agreement daha uzun vadeli bir anlaşma imzalanana dek yürürlükte olacak geçici anlaşma formalised resmileştirilmiş

a huge cut on bir döneme kıyasla çok daha az