Russia and the United States will manage to draft a new arms reduction treaty before the expiry of the current pact on December 5, a Russian lawmaker said Monday.
"Intensive and substantive work of two delegations is continuing on an almost 24-hour basis," Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the State Duma's international committee, said.
"There is a clear resolve to achieve a result within the timeframes set by the two presidents and linked to the current START treaty's expiration date," he added.
Moscow and Washington are negotiating a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), the basis for Russian-U.S. strategic nuclear disarmament, which expires in five days.
An outline of the new pact was agreed during a summit held by the Russian and U.S. presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, in Moscow in July, and includes cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.
START I commits the parties to reducing their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up strategic arms reduction agreement was concluded in Moscow. The document, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti)
