Article Posted on : - Jul 22, 2009

The two Cold War rivals have decided to curb their nuclear arsenal.

GENEVA (BNS): After pledging to cut down their nuclear arsenal, Russia and the US will hold discussions here from Wednesday to sort out problems on preparing an agreement in this regard.

The deliberations will focus on preparing the new document which is intended to replace the current Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (START-1) signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the US, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The treaty, which envisaged curtailing of nuclear weapons of the two countries by one-third, will expire on December 5 this year.

The report, citing sources in the Russian delegation, said that the upcoming consultations would deal with specific parameters of the prospective treaty, as well with the problems of its correlation with regard to the US plans of deploying Anti-Ballistic Missile defence system in Eastern European countries, specifically in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The regular round of consultations will continue till July 24, the report added.