WASHINGTON, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – US lawmakers have imposed new conditions the administration of President Barack Obama would need to meet before the United States can fulfill its obligations under the 2010 START nuclear arms reduction agreement with Russia, recently-approved legislation shows.
The restrictions stipulate that no funds may be spent to decommission US nuclear weapons before the Pentagon submits its plan for implementing the START cuts and Obama formally assures Congress that any future arms reductions would be carried out only through a Senate-ratified treaty or agreement.
The new terms were contained in Section 1052 of the 2014 US defense authorization bill, the proposed spending plan for the Pentagon, which was approved Friday by the House of Representatives in a vote of 315 to 107.
The US Senate must still approve its own version of the 2014 defense spending legislation – a bill which may or may not add the types of nuclear disarmament conditions inserted in the House version – and the two chambers must agree to an overall “reconciled” bill before Obama can sign the defense budget into law.
The version approved by the House would allow exceptions to the new conditions in order to ensure the safety of warheads that are retired or already awaiting dismantlement.
The 2010 START agreement, signed in Moscow by Obama and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, has been held up as one example of positive progress in a bilateral relationship otherwise littered with rancorous disagreements in recent years.
Under the pact, Russia and the United States are each required to reduce their deployed nuclear warhead stockpiles to a ceiling of 1,550 warheads. Critics of the deal charge it amounted to unilateral US reductions since it became clear later that Russia’s nuclear stockpiles were already below treaty limits.
Obama has explored paths for concluding agreements with other countries, including arms control deals, directly through the executive branch, bypassing more traditional – and more politically cumbersome – methods requiring the participation and approval of Congress.
In hearings for his confirmation as Obama’s new secretary of state, John Kerry suggested in January that a future arms agreement with Russia could be concluded and enacted solely as an executive agreement that would not require ratification by the Senate.
Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin said after their meeting on Monday that they had agreed on renewing a nuclear arms safety program that went into effect in 1992 and lapsed this month.
