Washington, Dec 17: With the US and Russia yet to sort out their differences, a senior Obama Administration official on Thursday said the agreement on Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the two countries is unlikely to be reached by the end of the year.
Both Washington and Moscow had earlier set the deadline of reaching an agreement by the end of the year, but this is most likely not to happen now.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a State Department official told reporters that US officials, involved in the negotiations, “expect that the START talks are powering right through the weekend, they are going to go right up to Christmas (then) breaking for the holidays and coming back in January.”
The official confirmed that the agreement is not going to be signed between the two countries at Copenhagen later this week, on the sidelines of the Climate Change Summit, which would be attended by US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
The two leaders are, however, expected to meet in Copenhagen on the sidelines of the summit, he said.
“We are not expecting the (START) deal before the end of the year,” he said.
Such a remark from the State Department official comes a day after Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley said the goal was to sign the deal before the end of the year.
“I think we’re getting very close to an agreement,” Crowley told reporters on Tuesday.
“Whether we can cross the finish line sooner, later — I think obviously, our focus is on getting the right agreement that meets our concerns and our interests, and obviously, those of Russia as well,” he said.
“Our goal is to get this done by the end of the year, and we’ll just continue to work to see — evaluate those on a day-to-day basis. I mean, obviously, the hard work continues by our intrepid team in Geneva,” Crowley said.
On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had ruled out signing the deal in Copenhagen.
“We certainly hope that we continue to make progress on the negotiations, hopeful that it gets done soon; I don’t know if it gets done this week,” Gibbs said.
“We are not planning currently for a signing ceremony in Copenhagen, and we are not planning to visit any nearby countries on that trip in signing a new START treaty,” Gibbs said when asked if the treaty would be signed this week.
There was a report from Moscow that the deal could be signed on the sidelines of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.
–Agencies