START Resource Center
For more information, contact Kingston Reif
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (State)
After a battle that lasted over nine months, the Senate voted 71-26 to give its advice and consent to the New START Resolution of Ratification on December 22, 2010.
The Senate approved the treaty after a debate lasting eight days and 13 recorded votes on a number of amendments to the resolution of ratification and the treaty itself as well as procedural votes.
New START is the follow-on treaty to the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which provided a legally-binding basis for substantial, verified reductions in the U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. START codified the end of the Cold War nuclear competition, reduced real and immediate dangers associated with the retention of excess nuclear weapons, and provided both sides with legal rights to verify the other’s compliance built to endure future political disputes.
START I expired on Dec. 5, 2009. After nearly a year of negotiations, Presidents Obama and Medvedev signed the New START agreement on April 8, 2010 at a ceremony in Prague, Czech Republic. The new treaty limits the U.S. and Russia to no more than 1,550 deployed strategic warheads and 800 deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles. The treaty also includes a streamlined and updated system of verification provisions to ensure each side that the other is complying with the treaty’s limits.
New START is a modest but critically important and necessary step that enhances U.S. security and reduces the dangers posed by nuclear weapons.
Before the treaty can enter into effect, the Russian Duma must also approve the treaty, after which the United States and Russia will exchange instruments of ratification.
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