The White House said Sunday it expects President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to announce progress in negotiations that could lead to a new nuclear arms control treaty by the end of the year.
Gary Samore, the president’s coordinator for weapons of mass destruction, didn’t offer any details on a possible agreement, but he said it will “register some progress.”
Obama is scheduled to arrive Monday in Moscow for two days of meetings. Negotiations on arms control are expected to dominate, with the current START I accord set to expire Dec. 5.
Both sides agree in principle to cut warheads from more than 2,000 each to as low as 1,500 apiece.
It’s important that any agreement “be free of the cold war burden of intrusive inspections,” Samore told reporters ahead of Obama’s arrival.
There is still a long way to go before a final agreement can be reached, Samore said, but the goal is to have a new treaty in place by December.
If an agreement is reached too late for the Senate to ratify the treaty by Dec. 5, Samore said the White House will look into ways to enforce some aspects on an executive level while waiting for ratification.
“We’ll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while the Senate considers the treaty,” he said.
The White House believes successful negotiations on arms control could also lead to progress in other areas.
“We think it will help gain greater cooperation from Russia on a number of issues, including Iran and North Korea,” Samore said.
If an announcement on arms control were to be made Monday, it would come ahead of Obama’s meeting with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s former president and current prime minister. Putin is thought by many to still control the levers of power in Russia.
