Yesterday, President Obama and Russian President Medvedev met for the first time and made important commitments to work together on nuclear weapons issues. Significantly, they pledged their countries to “achieving a nuclear free world” and committed to negotiating a replacement agreement for the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START) to ensure verifiable reductions to both countries' nuclear stockpiles.

Their agreement comes while the clock ticks down to the expiration of START in December of this year, creating an urgent need for a follow-on agreement to START. The historic 1991 START agreement allowed both Russian and the US to reduce their stockpiles and contained provisions that allowed for inspections and verification efforts.

With more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world today — and the US and Russia accounting for about 95 percent of those weapons – the pursuit of a new agreement by the two countries shows a reaffirmation of the importance of arms control measures to help make the world safer from nuclear weapons. Large stockpiles today only increase the risk of accidental launches or theft.

The joint statement by Obama and Medvedev also contained commitments to work on other positive steps to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime. These steps include: negotiations for a verifiable treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons, preventing nuclear terrorism, and US ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Here are some highlights from their joint statement:

We also discussed nuclear arms control and reduction. As leaders of the two largest nuclear weapons states, we agreed to work together to fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world. We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world, while recognizing that this long-term goal will require a new emphasis on arms control and conflict resolution measures, and their full implementation by all concerned nations. We agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in our strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty. We are instructing our negotiators to start talks immediately on this new treaty and to report on results achieved in working out the new agreement by July.

We intend to carry out joint efforts to strengthen the international regime for nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. In this regard we strongly support the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and are committed to its further strengthening. Together, we seek to secure nuclear weapons and materials…. We will deepen cooperation to combat nuclear terrorism. We will seek to further promote the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, which now unites 75 countries. We also support international negotiations for a verifiable treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. As a key measure of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament, we underscored the importance of the entering into force the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In this respect, President Obama confirmed his commitment to work for American ratification of this Treaty.

We, the leaders of Russia and the United States, are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries. In just a few months we have worked hard to establish a new tone in our relations. Now it is time to get down to business and translate our warm words into actual achievements of benefit to Russia, the United States, and all those around the world interested in peace and prosperity.

The White House’s Office of Press Secretary also more positive statements about the meeting:

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL:
My colleague enumerated what we think is a very significant breakthrough — namely, instructions to negotiators to begin the firming up of a verifiable, legally binding follow-on to the START agreement, which obviously will allow us to maintain very important verification measures after the end of this year, provided that we meet the goal laid out by the Presidents.

But the issues, as my colleague suggested by talking about the second statement that was released today, did not stop there. I would just say that the President was very forward-leaning as it relates to his fundamental interests and his fundamental belief that the biggest threat the country faces, our country faces, is a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist. So he leaned very far forward on nonproliferation goals.

He also made very clear that we continue to remain committed to the goal of locking down all loose fissile material within the next four years. That's something that we'll want to work very closely with our Russian colleagues on.

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