MOSCOW, September 21 (RIA Novosti) - The sixth round of talks on a new nuclear arms reduction deal between Russia and the U.S. opens on Monday in Geneva.
The Russian delegation is headed by Anatoly Antonov, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department of Security and Disarmament, while the U.S. team of negotiators is led by Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller.
The talks will be traditionally held behind closed doors, but some experts said that during this round the sides could discuss for the first time concrete provisions of the future agreement, which will replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), due to expire on December 5.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed in July in Moscow on the outline of a new deal, including cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.
Moscow is planning to hold 4-5 rounds of strategic arms reduction talks with Washington until December.
Medvedev said on Sunday the chances to reach agreements with the United States on a new strategic arms reduction treaty by the end of 2009 are "high enough."
The START-1 treaty obliges Russia and the U.S. to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each.
In 2002, a follow-up agreement on strategic offensive arms reduction was concluded in Moscow. The document, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
According to a report published by the U.S. State Department in April, as of January 1 Russia had 3,909 nuclear warheads and 814 delivery vehicles, including ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers.
The same report said the United States had 5,576 warheads and 1,198 delivery vehicles.
