PRAGUE — The nuclear weapons cuts that President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed Thursday would shrink the Cold War superpowers’ arsenals to the lowest point since the frightening arms race of the 1960s. But they won’t touch the “loose nukes” and suitcase bombs seen as the real menace in today’s age of terrorism.
“This ceremony is a testament to the truth that old adversaries can forge new partnerships,” Obama said. “It is just one step on a longer journey.”
The warheads covered by the treaty are lethal relics of the Cold War, and even with the planned reductions, there will be enough firepower on each side to devastate the world many times over.
Of more immediate concern are attempts by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and nations such as Iran and North Korea to acquire or use nuclear weapons.
Obama and Medvedev showed solidarity for a spring showdown with Iran. And, beginning Monday, leaders of 47 countries will gather in Washington in an effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, crack down on illicit nuclear trafficking and lock down vulnerable nuclear materials around the world.
Introduced Thursday with trumpet fanfare, the two grinning presidents sat at an ornate table in Prague’s hilltop presidential castle and put their signatures to a landmark successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Nearly a year in the making, the “New START” signaled a bold opening in previously soured U.S.-Russia relations. If ratified by both nations’ legislatures, it will shrink the limit of nuclear warheads to 1,550 each over seven years, down about a third from the current ceiling of 2,200.
Urgent international nuclear tasks still face the two leaders.
For example, they are trying to forge agreement among themselves and four other nations — China, France, Britain, and Germany — on how to tackle Iran’s defiance of United Nations demands that it cease enriching uranium. The West insists Iran seeks to develop nuclear weapons; Iran says it is after peaceful nuclear power.
At Obama’s side, Medvedev made Russia’s support for considering a fourth round of U.N. sanctions on Iran clearer than ever. “We cannot turn a blind eye to this,” he said of Iran’s intransigence.
But that was not the main question heading into the leaders’ talks, which ran overtime to about two hours. At issue, as representatives from the six partners prepare for what Obama called “ramped-up” discussions in New York, is how weak any new sanctions regime would need to be to get Russia on board — not to mention China, an even more stubborn holdout.
Medvedev said sanctions should be “smart” — designed to change behavior, not to bring down the hardline Iranian government or impose hardship on Iran’s people. The Russian leader said he had outlined for Obama “our limits for such sanctions,” and Obama Russia expert Mike McFaul said those discussions got very specific.
White House officials would not reveal details of the private conversation, concerned that it could threaten progress. But Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryab kov, said that a total embargo on refined petroleum products into Iran, which depends heavily on such imports, was out of the question.
