WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama told a meeting led by Vice President Joe Biden Thursday a new strategic arms treaty with Russia is a "national security imperative".
The new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty must be approved by the U.S. Senate, and the administration is pushing for its ratification during the current lame-duck session rather than delay consideration until the new Congress is seated. But some Republicans say the treaty should be delayed past the lame-duck session because of "unresolved issues".
"It is a national security imperative that the United States ratify the START treaty this year," Obama said.
"If we ratify this treaty, we're going to have a verification regime in place to track Russia's strategic nuclear weapons, including U.S. inspectors on the ground," he said. "If we don't, then we don't have a verification regime -– no inspectors, no insights into Russia's strategic arsenal, no framework for cooperation between the world's two nuclear superpowers. As Ronald Reagan said, we have to trust, but we also have to verify. In order for us to verify, we've got to have a treaty".
The two countries have been without a strategic arms treaty for nearly a year.
The president also said he's "prepared to go the extra mile" by supporting $80 billion for modernizing U.S. nuclear stockpiles in next decade and $4.1 billion in next five years.
The White House agenda said participants in the meeting included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass; Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, James Baker and Henry Kissinger; former Defense Secretaries William Cohen and William Perry; former national security adviser Gen. Brent Scowcroft; Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright, and former Sen. Sam Nunn.
UPI
