Lame-Duck Senate Breakthrough on START Treaty Said to Be Imminent

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) and US President Barack Obama (L) meet before the signing ceremony of the 'New START Treaty in Prague, April, 2010. EPA/BGNES

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated that the ruling Democrats have achieved progress in their efforts to get Republican Senators to back the ratification of the new START Treaty with Russia.

The new START Treaty was signed in April 2010 by Obama and Medvedev but is viewed unfavorably by the Republican Party in the US Senate; the Republicans, who made gains in the Senate in the mid-terms in early November are trying to delay the vote on the Treaty until the new Senate convenes in January 2011 when they will be able to be able to block its ratification with a greater amount of certainty.

However, Clinton has made it clear that the vote on the START Treaty is expected to be held by the "lame duck" Senate, before the inauguration of the new Senate in January.

"Senate sources say the deal is imminent and would result in bringing the treaty, known as New START, to the Senate floor on Dec. 13, which could provide up to two weeks of floor time to debate and then ratify the pact," The Cable blog, posted on the Foreign Policy website, says.

Jon Kyl, the number-two Senate Republican Jon Kyl, who earlier expressed his support for the treaty, said two weeks are needed to properly vet the treaty.

"We've made a lot of progress [in preparing a deal with Republicans], but it's not done until it's done... We have been encouraged by the positive response we've received from a number of Republicans," she said. "I believe we have enough votes that recognize the national security importance of doing this. But I'm not counting the chickens until they vote," the US State Secretary is quoted as saying.

The new Russian-US pact obligates both nations to cap 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 agreement will come into force after simultaneous ratification by both chambers of the Russian parliament and the US Senate.

During the recent NATO Summit in Lisbon, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged the US Senate to ratify the new US-Russia Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty warning that any delay in that would hurt the security and stability in Europe.

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