Moving Past START

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control under Obama and Medvedev

Since assuming office in late January 2009, President Barack Obama and his senior foreign policy advisers have resurrected the traditional approach toward Russian-American strategic arms control negotiations pursued by U.S. administrations during the 1990s. After an initial internal review and successful talks between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on March 6, the Obama administration decided to attempt to negotiate a new strategic arms control agreement before the existing START accord expires on Dec. 5, 2009. At their July 6-7 summit in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a "joint understanding" that offers a general framework for negotiating their next agreement on strategic nuclear weapons. They also released a joint statement on missile defense as well as documents pledging both parties' cooperation on other international security issues. ...