Russia ready for deep nuclear arms cuts, says Medvedev

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Russia is ready to dramatically cut its nuclear stockpiles in a new arms pact with the US if Washington meets Russia’s concerns over missile defence, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.
“We are ready to reduce by several times the number of nuclear delivery vehicles compared with the START-1 pact,” he told a news conference in Amsterdam.
“As far as warheads are concerned, their numbers should be lower than envisaged by the Moscow 2002 pact,” he added.
He was referring to an interim pact called the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) which commits the sides to further cuts in their arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads by 2012.
A new arms pact to follow the 1991 START treaty, which expires on Dec 5, is at the centre of efforts by Medvedev and US President Barack Obama to improve bilateral ties which sank to post-Cold War lows under the previous US administration.
A successor treaty aimed at cutting long-range nuclear weapons amassed by the former superpower rivals during the Cold War arms race will be a major topic at talks between Medvedev and Obama in Moscow next month.
Negotiators from both sides are expected to start a new round of consultations on a new pact next week, Medvedev’s spokeswoman Natalya Timakova told reporters.
START-1 stipulates that neither side can deploy more than 6,000 nuclear warheads and no more than 1,600 strategic delivery vehicles, which includes intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bomber aircraft.
A Kremlin source said Medvedev’s remarks amounted to instructions to Russian arms negotiators.
But the Kremlin chief again made clear that progress on START was linked to the future of the US missile shield project.