US, Russia Need to Negotiate to Further Reduce Nuclear Stockpiles

US President Barack Obama called for US-Russian joint efforts to reduce nuclear stockpile on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama has called for further reduction of US and Russian nuclear stockpiles, saying that the two countries should negotiate on the issue.

Obama made the statement ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit due to kick off in Washington later on Thursday. Leaders from more than 50 countries will take part in the event that will last through Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit this year, due to the lack of mutual action during preliminary preparations, according to the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"Along with our military leadership, I continue to believe that our massive Cold War nuclear arsenal is poorly suited to today’s threats. The United States and Russia — which together hold more than 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons — should negotiate to reduce our stockpiles further," Obama said in an op-ed in The Washington Post Wednesday.

Russia and the United States are on track to meet the goals of The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), decreasing the number of deployed American and Russian nuclear warheads to the lowest levels since 1950, Obama added.

The New START treaty was enacted in 2011 to reduce the total number of deployed US and Russian nuclear warheads to 1,550 and heavy bombers, equipped with nuclear warheads, to 700 by February 2018.