Washington (CNN) -- President Obama urged the lame duck Senate to quickly ratify the new arms control treaty with Russia, arguing that United States cannot "afford to gamble" on the need to effectively monitor that country's nuclear stockpile.
"The stakes for American national security are clear, and they are high," he said. "This is not a matter that can be delayed".
Obama called the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) a "cornerstone" of relations between Russia and the United States and "completely in line" with a long tradition of bipartisan cooperation on arms control.
The president insisted he's confident his administration will round up the 67 Senate votes needed for ratification of the treaty.
Obama made his remarks during a White House meeting about the treaty with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the committee.
Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker and Henry Kissinger were also in attendance, along with former National Security Adviser General Brent Scowcroft and former Secretaries of Defense William Cohen and William Perry.
Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, a top nuclear arms control expert, also joined the meeting.
If approved, the treaty would restart mutual inspections while limiting the United States and Russia to 1,550 warheads and 700 launchers each.
Ten Republican senators-elect, however, moved to counter the White House push, sending a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, urging a delay in consideration of the treaty until the new Congress convenes early next year.
CNN
