United States president Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev will meet in Prague on April 8 2010 to sign a deal that will see both countries reduce their nuclear weapons stockpiles, in a move to succeed the expired 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty – while Russia has underlined that under certain circumstances, it could pull out from the new pact.
 
Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country reserved the right to withdraw from the pact if a planned US missile defence system put his country at a disadvantage, the Voice of America reported.
 
Lavrov said that Russia would issue a statement outlining the terms for such a withdrawal after the signing ceremony in Prague is completed.
 
Lavrov has said previously that Russia could withdraw from the treaty, but his comments at a briefing on April 6 2010 were more specific on how and why a withdrawal could occur.
 
Lavrov said that Russia has the right to abandon the agreement if a quantitative and qualitative buildup of the US strategic anti-missile potential begins to significantly affect the efficiency of Russia's strategic nuclear forces. Russia will determine this degree of influence, Lavrov said.
 
While the US has scrapped the previous administration's plans for missile-defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, Moscow expressed concern about a possible facility in Romania.
 
Lavrov said that the site in Romania posed no immediate threat, but Russia could opt out of the new treaty if US missile interceptors become capable of striking Russia's strategic missiles.
 
He said the new agreement will be the first arms-control treaty to make the parties fully equal. 
 
Russia shared Obama's goal of a nuclear-free world, but other nations must join the disarmament process, as well, Lavrov said.
 
Lavrov said that Russia believes the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons is very important. 
 
But it is clear that it is impossible to move toward that goal in a vacuum, without paying attention to what is going on in the field of security, he said. 
 
We are convinced that in order to speak seriously about practical steps toward a world without nuclear weapons, one must pay attention to a whole series of factors that could potentially destabilise global strategic stability, he said.
 
Talks on the new treaty dragged on for about a year, stymied most recently by Russia's demand for an explicit link between strategic-arms cuts and development of the US missile-defence system. The US senate opposes any restrictions on the shield.
 
It was in Prague a year ago that Obama laid out his vision of a nuclear-free world.
 
"So today, I state clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," he said, as reported by VOA.
 
The agreement to be signed on April 8 replaces the START-1 treaty, which then-US president George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed in 1991. It expired in December 2009.
 
The treaty that Obama and Medvedev will sign a treaty will shrink each country's arsenal of strategic deployed nuclear warheads by 25 to 30 per cent.
 
The pact is a modest but important step forward, according to Kingston Reif, at the Washington-based Center For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
 
"The agreement verifiably limits, reduces excess Russian and US nuclear stockpiles, and it provides for an updated, streamlined, modern set of verification, monitoring and transparency provisions," Reif said.
 
Reif also expects this treaty to help strengthen the often-tense relationship between the countries. 
 
He says this improved co-operation is expected to help the US and Russia fight nuclear terrorism and work toward tougher sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities.
 
"The trust and transparency and confidence that the agreement will bring to the US-Russia relationship will also make it easier for the US and Russia to cooperate on other areas that are central to US and Russian security," Reif said.
 
When he announced the agreement on March 26 2010, Obama suggested that it would also enhance US prestige.
 
"And we've demonstrated the importance of American leadership - and American partnership - on behalf of our own security, and the world's," he said.
 
After the signing, the treaty must be ratified by the Russian Duma and the U.S. Senate, where 67 of the 100 Senators must approve it.
 
During his brief stay in Prague, Obama will also have a one-on-one meeting with his Russian counterpart, and will have dinner with heads of state and government of 11 Central and Eastern European countries, including Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.
 
 
Meanwhile, on April 6, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited a former ground zero of atom bomb testing in a highly symbolic gesture to plead for a nuclear weapons-free world on the eve of the April 8 Prague signing of the new nuclear arsenal reduction treaty.
 
In Kazakhstan on the last leg of a five-nation Central Asian tour, Ban travelled by helicopter to the remote former Soviet nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, where he welcomed Obama’s new policy on restricting the US use of nuclear weapons as an important initiative towards a nuclear-free world.
 
"I cannot think of a more fitting – even poignant – place to hear this news," Ban said from the site that had witnessed so many tests of such enormously devastating power, the UN News Service reported.
 
"More than 450 nuclear bombs were tested here with a terrible effect on people and nature. They have totally destroyed our environment; poisoned earth, rivers and lakes, children suffering from cancer, birth defects."
 
He called Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s "extraordinary leadership" in closing the Semipalatinsk test site and banishing all nuclear weapons in 1991 "a visionary step, a true declaration of independence.
 
"Today, this site stands as a symbol of disarmament and hope for the future… Now we have a good reason to believe that the promise of Semipalatinsk – the abolition of nuclear weapons – will become reality," he said, citing the Prague signing, and the new US nuclear policy announced on April 6.
 
"To lead by example, the US would renounce the development of new nuclear weapons," Ban said. "And for the first time, the US explicitly committed not to use nuclear weapons against any non-nuclear nations that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), even if the US was attacked."
 
Ban said he would use next week’s nuclear security summit in Washington to urge the leaders of Russia, the US and other nuclear States to abandon all nuclear weapons.
 
"To realise a world free of nuclear weapons is a top priority of the UN and the most ardent aspiration of human beings," Ban said.
 
On April 6, Obama's administration has unveiled a defence policy to significantly narrow the circumstances in which the US would use nuclear arms.
 
But its Nuclear Posture Review warned that countries breaking the rules would remain potential targets, the BBC said.
 
The far-reaching Nuclear Posture Review, published on Tuesday, outlines plans for "achieving substantial further nuclear force reductions" beyond the new treaty.
 
For the first time, the US is ruling out a nuclear response to attacks on America involving biological, chemical or conventional weapons, according to a BBC report.
 
But this comes with a big caveat: countries will only be spared a US nuclear response if they comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - this does not include Iran and North Korea.