Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Upon announcing the agreement, Rabbi Saperstein welcomed this major step forward in advancing U.S. security and ridding the world of the threat of nuclear weapons.
The treaty decreases both sides’ deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, which represents a 30% reduction, among other important developments.
The U.S. and Russia signed the START treaty in the Czech Republic on the one year anniversary of a speech President Obama delivered in Prague on the subject of nuclear non-proliferation. This address included commitments to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and made “a world without nuclear weapons” the goal of American nuclear policy.
Since that time, Vice President Biden affirmed this pledge in an address in Washington, D.C. (I was fortunate to have the chance to hear him give this speech!). This past week, the Obama Administration also issued what is known as a Nuclear Posture Review, a comprehensive strategy that will, for the first time, explicitly limit the conditions under which the United States would use a nuclear weapon.
Now that Presidents Obama and Medvedev have signed the new START agreement, the Senate must ratify the treaty by a two-thirds majority. Many Senators, included Senator Kerry, Senator Merkley, and Senator Lieberman have issued statements in response to the treaty.
You can use our action alert to write to your Senators, urging them to implement important weapons reductions and make our nation and world safer.
And stay tuned for more nuclear news this week – diplomats from nearly 50 countries are converging on D.C. for a nuclear summit, where they will likely discuss the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the threat of a nuclear Iran, and more.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or email me with questions.