With a December 5th deadline come and gone, nuclear disarmament supporters hoping for a new treaty soon between the US and Russia on nuclear weapons reduction may have to wait a little longer. At Copenhagen for climate change talks, Presidents Obama and Medvedev squeezed in a meeting on the ongoing nuclear weapons negotiations. The Associated Press quotes a spokesman for negotiations saying that the New START agreement to reduce both countries’ nuclear arsenals may not be completed until January:

“It’s extremely complex putting together a treaty like this,” Parmly told The Associated Press.

“If you’re expecting a signing ceremony by the end of the year, that would be a tough calendar,” Parmly said. “In the mean time, though, they’re working.”

With a December 5th deadline come and gone, nuclear disarmament supporters hoping for a new treaty soon between the US and Russia on nuclear weapons reduction may have to wait a little longer. At Copenhagen for climate change talks, Presidents Obama and Medvedev squeezed in a meeting on the ongoing nuclear weapons negotiations. The Associated Press quotes a spokesman for negotiations saying that the New START agreement to reduce both countries’ nuclear arsenals may not be completed until January:

“It’s extremely complex putting together a treaty like this,” Parmly told The Associated Press.

“If you’re expecting a signing ceremony by the end of the year, that would be a tough calendar,” Parmly said. “In the mean time, though, they’re working.”

This weekend, the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the US and Russia expired, but negotiators for both countries are working hard to finalize a new treaty, or “New START,” on verifiable nuclear weapons reductions by the end of the month. On Friday, the US and Russia issued this simple Joint Statement to help address concerns over the expiration of the treaty and its verification and inspection provisions:

Recognizing our mutual determination to support strategic stability between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, we express our commitment, as a matter of principle, to continue to work together in the spirit of the START Treaty following its expiration, as well as our firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enter into force at the earliest possible date.

President Obama has touched down in Japan. While some groups have been calling for Obama to become the first American President to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the only two cities to be attacked using nuclear weapons — there are reports that instead President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will issue a joint statement sometime today calling for a nuclear weapons free world. According to one report:

In the statement, tentatively entitled the US-Japan joint initiative for a nuclear-free world, they would welcome rising international momentum toward arms reduction and non-proliferation, the Yomiuri said Thursday.

In their joint effort, the United States would seek to raise the global momentum, while Japan would push the message from its perspective as the only country to have been hit with atomic bombs.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Last week, we heard that President Obama will chair a special meeting of the UN Security Council in September on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Obama is pushing for a comprehensive plan to reduce the nuclear threat and move toward a nuclear weapons free world: negotiating a new START agreement with Russia to reduce both our nuclear weapons stockpiles, ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to ban nuclear testing, and strengthening non-proliferation efforts. But there are plenty who have a Stranglovian dedication to our nuclear weapons heritage, and are clamoring to defend it. Enter Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and the tug of war that took place during the Senate’s consideration of the FY2010 Defense Authorization bill.