Updated on
Summary
Russia and the United States have reached an agreement on a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty, while the US Senator Richard Lugar said that presidents of both the countries on April 8th.All documents for the signing of START have been agreed, said the Kremlin official. In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, We are very close to having an agreement on a START treaty, but we won't have one until President Obama and his counterpart, Mr Medvedev, have a chance to speak again. Asked later about Gibbs' statement, a Kremlin official said, The deal is agreed on the whole, but there are some technical details that still need to be resolved. Both sides said the successor to the last major Cold War arms reduction pact would likely be signed in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, a former Soviet satellite now in NATO. The White House hopes to sign the new treaty on April 8, said Republican Senator Richard Lugar after he and Democratic Senator John Kerry were briefed by Obama. The new pact is a crucial element of efforts to improve Russian-US relations after years of tension that peaked following Russia's war with US-supported Georgia in 2008.
