I am pleased to announce that Obama recently stated that the US and Russia are almost completely finished negotiating terms for a nuclear treaty between the two nations. I have to admit, I thought that the day would never come. So often these negotiations play out over the course of several years, only to end with no agreement at all.
The purpose of the treaty is to replace the 1991 START treaty which was implemented after the Cold War to ensure that the US and Russia remained on friendly terms with their nuclear weapons. The Russian news reported that on Saturday Obama and Russian President Medvedev “expressed satisfaction with the highly advanced state of preparations.”
Currently the US has about 2200 nuclear warheads while Russia is believed to have 3000. Both parties agreed to dramatically cut down on these stockpiles to around 1500 nuclear warheads.
I must say that I am very pleased to see the US and Russia working together so well. It truly is a thing of diplomatic beauty to see two countries who had initially engaged in an arms race, now working together to reduce nuclear arms surpluses. The question is, how will this impact US and Russia relations.
I believe that this will bring us one tiny step forward in our relationship with Russia. Too often citizens forget that political histories take years if not centuries to undo. Russia and the US will not be on strong trusting terms any time soon. However, a relationship of mutual cooperation signifies that both nations respect one another. To me, this is a sign that we will not be going to war with Russia any time soon.
