Moscow, December 02: Russia has threatened to continue building up its nuclear arsenal if the United States fails to ratify the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told CNN’s Larry King, “We’ve been simply saying that this is what all of us expect to happen if we don’t agree on a joint effort there.”
He added that Russia would be forced to react by developing new nuclear weapons technology, AFP reported.
START was signed in April by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The treaty, however, is yet to be ratified by the US Senate with many Republicans showing reluctance to ratification.
The treaty would restrict each country to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads over the next seven years, which is an approximately 30 percent cut from the 2002 limit. The two countries would also have to comply with new rules for verification and monitoring.
On Tuesday, Obama called the treaty’s ratification “absolutely essential to our national security,” after meeting at the White House with both Democrat and Republican leaders.
He added that it would enable the US to “monitor Russia’s nuclear arsenal, reduce our nuclear weapons and strengthen our relationship with Russia.”
Congress has held 18 hearings on the treaty’s ratification for over seven months.
The reluctant Republicans in the Senate argue that the US nuclear arsenal needs to be modernized, adding that they do not want the treaty to hamper the development of the US missile system.
At least eight Republicans in the Senate must now vote for the passage of the treaty, but if delayed until next year, at least 14 Republican votes will be needed from the new members of Congress.
The US and Russia together possess 95 percent of the entire world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, according to Xinhua news agency.
——–Agencies