Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he hoped the Russian-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty would be ratified soon by both sides.
The new START treaty, signed on April 8 in Prague, replaces the 1991 pact that expired in December. The deal is expected to bring Moscow and Washington to a new level of cooperation in the field of nuclear disarmament and arms control.
"The document has already been submitted for ratification by both sides," he said. "I hope very much that the ratification will be completed and the treaty will come into force soon."
Medvedev submitted the treaty for ratification to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, on May 28.
Leonid Slutsky, first deputy head of the State Duma international relations committee, said the treaty could be ratified at the beginning of the fall session, which opens in September, and that parliamentary hearings could be held before July.
U.S. President Barack Obama told Medvedev on May 13 the United States had already submitted the document for ratification to the Senate.
On May 26, Obama called on the Senate Republicans at a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill to cooperate in the soonest possible ratification of the strategic arms reduction deal with Russia.
The treaty stipulates that the number of nuclear warheads be reduced to 1,550 on each side over seven years, while the number of delivery vehicles, both deployed and non-deployed, must not exceed 800.
The U.S. and Russian presidents have agreed that the ratification processes should be simultaneous.
MOSCOW, June 3 (RIA Novosti)
