MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the United States have confirmed their intention to reduce their strategic offensive arms to a minimal level and develop relevant agreements, Russia's foreign minister and the U.S. Secretary of State said in a statement Tuesday.
"Russia and the United States state again their intention to continue with the reduction of strategic offensive weapons down to the possibly lowest level, which would guarantee national security and alliance obligations," Sergei Lavrov and Condoleezza Rice said in the joint statement, which summarized the results of the summit in Kennebunkport, the United States.
The START I treaty was signed July 31, 1991, five months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it expires December 5, 2009. It remains in force, as a treaty between the U.S. and Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since totally disarmed their strategic arms capabilities, and the U.S. and Russia reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600 units, with no more than 6,000 warheads.
The treaty was followed by START II, which banned the use of multiple re-entry vehicles (MIRV) but never entered into force and was later bypassed by the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), signed May 24, 2002 by Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in Moscow.
SORT, which expires December 31, 2012, limited both countries' nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,200 warheads each. The treaty has been largely criticized for the lack of verification provisions and the possibility of re-deploying stored warheads.
