Medvedev ready to submit arms reduction pact to parliament in early May

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday he is ready to submit the new arms reduction treaty to parliament for ratification in the beginning of May should his counterpart Barack Obama do the same in the United States.

On April 8, Obama and Medvedev met in Prague and signed a long-awaited new arms reduction deal to replace the START 1 treaty that expired in December 2009.

Medvedev spoke at Brookings Institution, a leading U.S. think tank, after the end of the April 12-13 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

A top Russian senator, Mikhail Margelov, asked the president when the treaty will be submitted to parliament.

Medvedev asked: "When will the Americans submit [it]?"

"In the first week of May," was the reply from the audience.

"We can do it at the same time in the form of a package solution," a laughing Medvedev said.

"In the morning we'll get in contact with President Obama over the phone, and I will ask him: 'Are you submitting it?' If he is, then I will submit [it] too."

In the new arms reduction treaty, the two countries, which possess about 90% of global arsenals of nuclear weapons, agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side and the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles to 800 on each side.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (RIA Novosti)