According to the New York Times, Russia and the United States may be moving closer to an arms treaty that would decrease the amount of nuclear arms owned by each nation by 25 percent.
President Obama and Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev reportedly had a 30-minute telephone conversation in Saturday regarding the compromises that each country must make in order to push forward with a treaty at a nuclear arms summit scheduled for next month in Washington.
This treaty would serve the purpose of replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), an agreement signed by both countries in 1991 that expired in December of 2009.
According to the Times, the Kremlin released a statement saying that the chances for signing a new treaty are good.
“It is now possible to talk about specific dates for the submission of the draft Start treaty for signing by the heads of state,” read the statement.
The White House, however, appears to be reserved on the matter.
“The results of their talks are encouraging, and both leaders are committed to concluding an agreement soon,” said White House spokesman Mike Hammer to the Times.
US officials said that the new treaty would reduce the nuclear arsenal of each country to about 1,600 missiles. Additionally, the treaty would decrease the number of non-nuclear missiles and bomb-carrying aircrafts. According to the Times, both Russia and the US currently possess nuclear arsenals with about 2,200 missiles each.
Since Salt expired in December, there has been near-constant bartering between the US and Russia regarding nuclear arms, an aspect that, according to the Times, the Obama Administration wanted to avoid.
Despite the numerous setbacks, the White House has reportedly not yet set a cutoff date for the negotiations.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reportedly making a journey to Moscow within the week.
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