Global General

New nuclear arms treaty could be ready within weeks: Russian FM

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-10 02:21

MOSCOW - A new Russia-U.S. treaty on nuclear arms reduction could be signed within two or three weeks, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

"We would like everything to be finished in two or three weeks. The chances are there," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

"If everyone strictly abides by the central principle - the principle of parity underlying this document - all issues will be resolved soon," he said.

However, Lavrov stressed that "no artificial deadlines" had been set for signing the pact.

He also added that the new arms control deal would link strategic offensive and defensive weapons.

"This link will undoubtedly be reflected. It will be documented in a legally binding form," Lavrov said.

Russia and the United States have been working on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) that expired on Dec. 5, but they failed to reach a deal before the end of 2009.

Russian and U.S. negotiators resumed nuclear disarmament talks in Geneva on Tuesday after a 10-day break.

President Dmitry Medvedev said last Friday that Moscow and Washington had come very close to clinching a new arms treaty.

Despite the optimism, the negotiations have been complicated by divergences over a series of issues, including U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile shield in East Europe.

U.S. President Barack Obama last September scrapped plans for a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland pursued by his predecessor as protection against possible missile threats from "rogue states."

In February, however, Romania and Bulgaria angered Moscow by announcing that they were ready to be part of the revamped U.S. missile defense system.