Russia yesterday said that the third round of negotiations with the United States on replacing the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is scheduled for next week, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 11).
The talks are expected to take place Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
U.S. and Russian diplomats are striving to hammer out the outline of a new arms control deal in time to present to U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a summit set for July in Moscow.
The existing treaty is scheduled to expire on Dec. 5. A new pact could mandate further reductions in the two nations' nuclear arsenals, which are now limited to between 1,700 and 2,200 operationally deployed warheads.
"The talks are proceeding in a constructive and businesslike tone. We are working from the assumption that at the July summit the presidents will be able to announce the interim results," Nesterenko said (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, June 18).