The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia reduces the US and Russian arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 apiece within seven years. The Senate ratified the treaty Dec. 22 by a vote of 71 to 26.
New START, as it is known, extends the START II, which expired December 2009. It also allows US inspections of Russian nuclear weapons sites to resume. During months of negotiation with the White House over terms of the treaty, Republican senators held out for evidence that the administration is also willing to modernize American’s nuclear force structure.
The Senate ratification of New START marks a step toward fulfilling Obama’s campaign pledge to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
