Lavrov rejects U.S. Senate resolution on START
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that the resolution adopted by the U.S. Senate on the new strategic arms reduction treaty (START) was not true.
"The Senate's resolution claims that the treaty does not apply to new kinds of non-nuclear strategic weapons that could be developed in the future. But this is not true," Lavrov said in the Federation Council as quoted by news agencies.
The statement by the U.S. Republican senators that denies link between offensive and defensive weapons was also not legally binding, he added.
"There are a few problems, one of the main ones being the assertion contained in this statement that the correlation between strategic offensive and defensive weapons, reflected in the treaty, is not legally binding for the U.S. and Russia because it is stipulated in the preamble. This thesis cannot be defended by lawyers," he said.
Lavrov also said the final draft resolution was more hard-lined than the initial version by including some Republicans' positions.
"Indeed, some of its points make this position more hard-lined as compared with the principles offered by the draft statement that was debated by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations," he said.
On the same day in an interview with three Russian TV channels, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hailed the new START as a cornerstone of European and global security, as well as a very important event this year.
Medvedev praised his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, saying the U.S. leader lived up to his promises.
"Good for him, he managed to 'push through' the ratification of the most important document on strategic offensive weapons in fairly difficult conditions, it will serve as the basis of our security in the coming years," said the Russian president.
The U.S. Senate ratified the START on Wednesday. Russia's State Duma would discuss the ratification of START in the first of its three required readings Friday, while the Federation Council, or the upper house of the parliament, would consider ratifying the treaty next year.
Moscow and Washington signed the new START on April 8 in Prague, which calls for a big cut in nuclear weapons from both sides. The treaty has to be ratified by the two countries' lawmakers before officially taking into effect.
According to the new treaty, both countries must reduce the number of their strategic missiles to 800 units, and reduce the number of warheads by one-third to 1550.
The START treaty has been widely seen as an effort for both Moscow and Washington to "reset" their relations.
