When President Obama met with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev earlier today, they agreed to negotiate a treaty to reduce arms:
As leaders of the two largest nuclear weapons states, we agreed to work together to fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world,” a joint statement read. “We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world, while recognizing that this long-term goal will require a new emphasis on arms control and conflict resolution measures, and their full implementation by all concerned nations. We agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in our strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty.”
David Satter, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies tells “The Corner”: ”I think that new — and, of necessity, extremely rushed — arms-control negotiations are a concession to Russian vanity and nothing in Russian behavior justifies it. Moreover, by agreeing to these negotiations under existing circumstances we actually reinforce the imperialist mentality with which we will then have to deal.”