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President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons e

President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons

President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent.

The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow.

Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a non-proliferation negotiator in the Clinton Administration. The talks will be driven by Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

No final decision on the defence shield has been taken by Mr Obama. Yet merely delaying the placement of US missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic — which if deployed would cost the US $4 billion annually — removes what has been a major impediment to Russian co-operation on arms reduction…………….. Mr Obama has pledged to put nuclear weapons reduction at the heart of his presidency

President Obama seeks Russia deal to slash nuclear weapons – Times Online

Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium

February 4, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | NORTH AMERICA, weapons and war