Nuclear weapons agreement delayed
Russia and the United States will likely not sign a new agreement on nuclear arms reduction before early next year.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) between the two countries expired on December 5th. START-1 stipulates the number of strategic nuclear warheads and the number of launchers. Many of Russia’s strategic nuclear warheads are placed onboard submarines based on the Kola Peninsula in the Barents Region. Earlier in December it was believed that the text to the new agreement could be signed into a treaty at the ongoing Copenhagen Climate Summit meeting since both Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama announced they would meet in the Danish capital. The new treaty will cut the number of strategic nuclear warheads to 1500-1650 and the number of launchers to 500-1000 on each side.
