US, Russia hold new round of START talks
July 23rd, 2009 - 1:08 am ICT by IANS
Geneva, July 22 (DPA) Delegations from the US and Russia began a new round of talks Wednesday on replacing START, the nuclear arms reduction treaty that is set to expire at the end of the year.
Diplomats from both countries told DPA that the teams had begun their meetings at the Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva in the late morning.
The talks are expected to last at least two days but might continue Friday, if needed, an official noted.
This is the first round of talks since US President Barack Obama met his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow earlier this month and reached a basic agreement that there must be a follow-up treaty.
The first meeting on a successor to the cold war-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was held in Moscow two months ago, followed by two rounds in Geneva, leading up to the high-level summit.
Obama and Medvedev reached a “joint understanding,” which aims to reduce the number of nuclear warheads held by each to between 1,500 and 1,675, compared with the maximum of 2,200 under START.
They would also aim to reduce the number of missiles capable of delivering warheads from the current maximum of 1,600 allowed for each side to between 500 and 1,100.
Experts from defence, space and atomic divisions of the foreign and defence ministries of the two nuclear powers regularly take part in the negotiations.
The substance of the Geneva talks would be based on the agreements reached between the two presidents, officials said.
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Tags: barack obama, cold war, defence ministries, delegations, diplomatic mission, diplomats, dpa, first meeting, geneva, medvedev, missiles, moscow, negotiations, nuclear arms reduction, nuclear powers, nuclear warheads, presidents, russia, russian counterpart, summit
