The Russian parliament completed on January 26 its process of advice and consent for ratifying the New START nuclear arms treaty, and President Dmitry Medvedev signed the ratification bill on January 28.
Both houses of the Russian parliament were required to approve of the treaty. The Duma (lower house) provided its final approval on January 25, by a vote of 350-96, with one abstention. The 137 members of the Federation Council (upper house) voted unanimously for the treaty a day later.
President Barack Obama has a golden opportunity in his State of the Union address tomorrow to advance his disarmament agenda by highlighting the benefits to U.S. security in the entry into force of the global treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. This requires the new Senate to ratify it.
BASIC has been engaged with two major developments in nuclear weapons policy: U.S. ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), and the results of NATO’s summit in Lisbon, including the release of its new Strategic Concept. See below for BASIC’s press releases and for more information on these topics, please scroll down to the sections on Commitments to Arms Control and Disarmament, and Missile Defense.
“The ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is a significant political victory for the global disarmament agenda and efforts to secure the world from nuclear dangers,” said Pa
“Nuclear disarmament is one of the things that Obama really cares about, and he decided to stake his personal credibility on this vote,”…..”I wouldn't rule out the administration testing the water next year to see whether they can get the votes in the Senate to ratify the global test ban treaty, which would provide a crucial push towards it coming into force.”
The Senate passed the New START nuclear arms treaty with Russia today, with a vote of 71-26.
See BASIC's Press Release, December 22:
http://tinyurl.com/2d5nxfd
We approach the end of 2010 on the verge of a vote in the U.S. Senate on the new START treaty, brought to the floor on December 15th, and for a possible vote as early as tomorrow, December 22nd. Its ratification is significant for verification measures, as well as for the global nuclear disarmament agenda if only because it lays an important foundation stone for future initiatives between the United States and Russia, and helps to open the way for the Administration to bring the test ban treaty to the Senate.
“The administration doesn’t want the whole thing to be reopened when they’ve already gone through 20 briefings, they’ve already answered 900 questions for the record,”Anne Penketh, BASIC's program director in Washington, told the Epoch Times.
Read the full article here: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/46462/