The Senate ratified the New START by a vote of 71 to 26. “This is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades, and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with Russia. With this treaty, our inspectors will also be back on the ground at Russian nuclear bases. So we will be able to trust but verify,” Obama said at a White House news conference soon thereafter.
Signed with Russia early this year, New START would reduce the nuclear stock piles of the two countries to 1,500.
“We will continue to advance our 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. And this treaty will enhance our leadership to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the peace of a world without them,” Obama said.
The President said that the strong, bipartisan vote in the Senate sent a powerful signal to the world that Democrats and Republicans stand together on behalf of the US security.
The treaty allows the two countries to conduct 18 short-notice, on-site inspections each year, with as many as 10 “Type 1” inspections, which focus on strategic systems, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers, and up to eight “Type 2” inspections, which cover storage sites, test ranges and other operations.
On-site inspections work in synergy with other elements of the treaty, including data exchanges on the technical characteristics, locations and distribution of weapons.
Any changes in the status of strategic systems must be reported through timely notifications and biannual reports, according to the treaty.
The treaty also mandates that 35 facilities in Russia and 17 in the United States are subject to inspections.
Russian inspectors will be permitted entry into the United States via Washington DC and San Francisco, escorted by Defense Threat Reduction Agency officials.
Each side has to give 32 hours notice during normal working hours before a short-notice inspection.
Once this Treaty enters into force, on-site inspections of Russia’s strategic nuclear weapons facilities can resume, providing US with an on-the-ground view of Russia’s nuclear forces, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said.
The information and insight from these inspections forms the core of our ability to ‘trust but verify’ compliance with New START.
A responsible partnership between the world’s two largest nuclear powers that limits our nuclear arsenals while maintaining strategic stability is imperative to promoting global security.
“With New START, US and Russia will have another important element supporting our “reset” relationship and expanding our bilateral cooperation on a wide range of issues,” Clinton said.
“This historic Senate vote makes our country safer and moves the world further away from the danger of nuclear disaster. The winners are not defined by party or ideology. The winners are the American people, who are safer with fewer Russian missiles aimed at them, and who benefit knowing that our cooperation with Russia in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and supplying our troops in Afghanistan can be strengthened,” said Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Jim Langevin congratulated Obama on this and said this Treaty strengthens US and international security by reducing the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, while continuing to support the Presidents commitment to strong missile defense efforts in the United States and Europe.
Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, praised the Senate’s passage of the resolution of ratification for the US-Russia ‘New START’ to further reduce strategic nuclear arms.
“This is a historic vote to safeguard US national security, to further reduce the nuclear dangers facing us, and to give, indeed, a ‘new start’ to the cause of reducing and eliminating these most terrible of weapons,” he said.
“Ratification of the New START Treaty will provide predictability, confidence, transparency and stability in the US-Russian relationship. The New START Treaty will make us safer today, and leave a safer world for our children and grandchildren. The Senate should ratify the New START Treaty now,” said Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.