President Barack Obama makes a statement on the New START treaty in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.  He is joined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (outside of the picture), and Admiral Mike Mullen.  (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The treaty was easily passed with the final vote of 71 to 26.

On December 22, 2010, the Senate of the United States ratified the New START nuclear armaments reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

Commentators hailed the treaty as a major success of President Obama, as the passage of the accord happened in the last days of the congressional lame-duck session. The treaty was easily ratified with the final vote of 71 to 26. All democratic senators voted in favor of New START, and a number of prominent republican legislators also joined in supporting the arms limitations agreement. A supermajority of senators was needed to ratify the agreement.    

The President of the United States called the treaty as “the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades.” The U.S. President noted that America will continue to advance its relationship with Russia, which is essential to making progress on a host of challenges – from enforcing strong sanctions on Iran to preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists.

The support of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle shows that the Democratic and the Republican Parties are united on issues of homeland security.

The treaty was ratified with an amendment sponsored by Senator John McCain (Arizona) and Bob Croker (Tennessee), clarifying that the agreement would not be construed to preclude America’s missile defense plans. 

Dmitry Medvedev and President Barack Obama inked the New START treaty in the Czech Republic on April 8, 2010. The START I treaty made between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1991 lapsed on December 4, 2009. The new treaty is also designed to replace the Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty of 2002 (SORT).   

Military experts agree that START I played an historic role in maintaining international peace and strategic security. The treaty created an atmosphere of openness and predictability in the process of reducing strategic offensive weapons. The adherence of the parties to the START I treaty was taken into consideration in the preparation of the new agreement. At the same time, new provisions related to arms reduction were included into the agreement.

In announcing the new agreement, the leaders of the U.S. and Russia noted that the countries of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine have made considerable contributions to ensuring nuclear non-proliferation and stability within the framework of the 1992 Lisbon Protocol. The countries voluntarily decided to dismantle and remove from their territories all nuclear weapons. Historians acknowledge that these states were committed to bolstering national security and maintaining the global strategic balance.

The New START treaty was prepared under the guidance of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in accordance with the Russian-American joint statements and declarations made in London on April 1, 2009 and at the Moscow Summit on July 6, 2009. 

Negotiations on the New START treaty began in mid-summer of 2009, and ten rounds of negotiations were conducted in Geneva. The discussions lasted less than eight months.

The arms reduction treaty that was in effect prior to 2010 limited the number of delivery vehicles, such as land-based ICBMs, submarine-based ICBMs, and long-range bombers to 1 600. The number of warheads was reduced to 6 000 since the end of the Cold War.

During the meeting of Presidents Medvedev and Obama in Moscow on July 6, 2009, the two leaders decided that it would be necessary to create a new agreement for reducing strategic offensive weapons.

The White House and the Kremlin issued a joint statement in relation to the importance of devising a new accord and a bilateral declaration on the continued validity of START I. The two heads of state expressed support for joining efforts in reducing offensive weapons even after the expiration of START I. The leaders also agreed to follow the guarantees of mutual security as set forth in the Budapest memoranda.  

In their statements, the Presidents recognized the two country’s mutual determination to support international strategic stability. The leaders further expressed commitment to continue working together in the spirit of the START treaty following its expiration. Presidents Medvedev and Obama stated that it would be their firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms would enter into force at the earliest possible date.

Under the new treaty, the nuclear forces of the United States and Russia will be limited to 1 550 deployed warheads for each side. This level is almost one-third smaller than what was provided for under SORT. The countries will also be authorized to deploy 700 ICBMs, submarine-based ICBMs, and long-range heavy bombers. These figures would reflect a 50-percent reduction in relation to START I. Furthermore, the treaty would allow each side to have 800 launchers of land-based ICBMs, submarine-based ICBM launch vehicles, and heavy bombers, whether deployed or non-deployed. The treaty does not mandate any exact combination of the launch vehicles, so Russia and the U.S. would be able to structure their respective fleets of nuclear armaments as each country considers appropriate.     

Provisions in the treaty also address such aspect as data exchange, furnishing notices, remodeling and eliminating of nuclear facilities, as well as the verification procedures to be used by the two sides. Military analysts consider that the verification method mandated in the New START treaty will be a simpler and less expensive version of the mechanism used under START I. At the same time, there can be no doubt that the verification process will ensure the transparency, verifiability, and irreversibility of the strategic armaments reduction process. Both offensive and defensive weapons systems are addressed in the New START treaty. Thus, the treaty emphasizes the importance of the connection between the deployment of offensive and defensive systems and the whole armaments reduction program.

The treaty also places a great deal of importance on the links between non-nuclear ICBMs and submarine ICBMs with the concept of strategic stability.

Under New START, all strategic offensive armaments can be deployed only on the territories of the respective parties, the U.S. and Russia. Additionally, the treaty provides for the creation of a bilateral advisory commission, the purpose of which would be to promote the realization of the treaty’s goals.

The treaty will continue in force for a period of ten years, unless it gets superseded by a later agreement.

Presidents Medvedev and Obama declared that the accord would bring the U.S. and Russia to a new level of strategic relations. The invariable adherence of the biggest nuclear powers in the world to the reduction of their strategic offensive arsenals, the Presidents noted, would be indispensible to keeping with the spirit and the letter of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.