US, Russia sign new nuclear arms pact
08 Apr 2010
Prague: United States president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitri A Medvedev signed a nuclear arms control treaty on Thursday heralding what they hoped would be a new era in their blow-hot, blow-cold relationship.
The signing of the agreement not only brings down the level of nuclear arsenals that both sides will now maintain but also restores an inspection regime that was allowed to lapse in December.
The signing of the treaty, though, does not disguise the fact that actual reduction of warheads in respective arsenals is marginal and that both sides have neatly sidestepped contentious issues, particularly concerning missile defence that preoccupies central and east Europe.
The signing of the so-called New Start Treaty, however, acts as a neat curtain raiser for president Obama's more ambitious agenda of reaching global consensus over nuclear non-proliferation at a summit meet that he hosts in approximately a week's time from now in Washington.
''When the United States and Russia are not able to work together on big issues, it is not good for either of our nations, nor is it good for the world,'' Obama said at the famed Prague Castle.
''Together, we have stopped the drift, and proven the benefits of cooperation.
