WASHINGTON — The United States and Russia said Friday they had agreed to maintain the provisions of a major nuclear arms control treaty just hours before the pact expired after being in force for 18 years.
In a joint statement by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and President Barack Obama, the two sides pledged to continue to work together “in the spirit” of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired at 5 p.m. MST Friday. In the statement Friday, the two sides also expressed their “firm intention to ensure that a new treaty on strategic arms enters into force at the earliest possible date.”
The U.S.-Russian pledge would appear to mean the two sides will continue to respect the expired treaty’s limits on nuclear arms and allow inspectors to continue verifying that both sides were living up to the deal.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama and Medvedev discussed some of the remaining items to be resolved in a phone call Friday. Gibbs also denied European press speculation that Obama will make a side trip to Prague next week to sign a START deal with Medvedev before he goes to Oslo, Norway, to collect his Nobel Peace Prize.
Negotiators gave up hope months ago of having a new deal ratified and in place before the expiration.
The expiring START treaty, signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and President George H.W. Bush, required each country to cut its nuclear warheads by at least one-fourth, to about 6,000, and to implement procedures for verifying that each side was sticking to the pact.
