Russia and the US will ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in autumn. On Thursday two dedicated committees of the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament) have recommended the parliament to ratify the new strategic arms reduction treaty (START).
The State Duma's committee on the International Affairs and the committee on Defense made decision to recommend the treaty for ratification with the majority of votes. Further steps in the State Duma regarding the treaty's ratification will depend on the factions of the Russian parliament and the US Senate. In order to ensure technical synchronization with the Senate of the US Congress the Russian parliament will take a technical break. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov the lawmakers should not hurry the ratification process.
The political and technical readiness of the ratification has been confirmed - Ryabkov says. We assume that there won't be any complications on behalf of the US. In general Moscow sees no signs that Washington may doubt the ratification of the document. Still there are many critical remarks on the treaty both in mass media and during the sessions. The subject implies very serious approach and we should not jump the gun. But both parties want to finalize ratification in autumn.
Under the new treaty in the next seven years Russia and the US are to reduce the total number of nuclear warheads by 1/3 in comparison with the number stipulated by the Moscow agreement of 2002. The parties are also obliged to cut the ceiling of strategic delivery weapons by half.
But every agreement is a compromise. Moscow has reserved the right to quit the deal if the US builds up its anti-missile system too aggressively. In its turn Washington also repelled Moscow's attempts to veto some of its plans. The new treaty makes the relations between the two nations more predictable and its provisions were formulated on parity basis. Nevertheless the range of opinions among the Russian and the US lawmakers is wide - from approval to rejection. According to First Deputy Chief of the headquarters of the Russian armed forces Alexcander Burutin, the concerns of some of the State Duma deputies are grounded.
The lawmakers really want to work it all out. First of all it concerns the deployment of the US anti-missile system. Our deputies were concerned with the recent statement made by State Secretary Hillary Clinton in Poland. Some deputies saw the problems with ratification there. Anyway in the agreement we have made it clear that if Americans take too aggressive steps in building up their anti-missile system we have the right to quit the deal.
To come into force the treaty should be ratified by the parliaments of Russia and the US. On May 13, the treaty was submitted for consideration to the US Senate and on May 28 - to the Federal Assembly (the Upper House of the Russian parliament) The leaders of both countries hope that the treaty will have been ratified by November.
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