U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton said she hopes the new arms reduction treaty with Russia does not fall victim to political intrigues in the Senate.
The new treaty was signed on April 8 in Prague, replacing the START 1 treaty that expired in December 2009.
"It's a political issue. I wish it weren't," Clinton said. "But I hope that at the end of the day the Senate will say something should just be beyond any kind of election or partisan calculation, and that everybody will pull together and we'll get that START treaty done," she said during her "American Moment" speech.
The new pact obligates both nations to limit their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.
The treaty is undergoing ratification in the Senate. But the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, John Kerry, postponed a vote on the treaty until mid-September, citing the need for senators to review the document more thoroughly.
Clinton said at the Washington Council on Foreign Relations that she hopes the Senate will cast aside election- or other political-related reasons and that the treaty will eventually be ratified.
The United States will hold midterm elections in the Senate on November 2.
WASHINGTON, September 8 (RIA Novosti)
