MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The current round of arms reduction talks in Switzerland are centered largely on technical issues, the chief of the Russian General Staff said on Tuesday.
The work on a new draft treaty "is very intensive. There are problems that require synchronization. These are mainly technical issues because there are some parameters that have to be agreed," Gen. Nikolai Makarov told reporters.
He expressed hope that a new treaty would be ready by the time the current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), the basis for Russian-U.S. strategic nuclear disarmament, expires on December 5. The current round of talks near Geneva began on Monday.
"I hope that a new treaty will be drafted by that time," he said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama will meet on the sidelines of this year's gathering of APEC leaders, hosted by Singapore on November 14-15.
An outline of the new pact was agreed during the presidents' bilateral summit in Moscow in July and includes cutting their countries' nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.
START I commits the parties to reduce their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. In 2002, a follow-up strategic arms reduction agreement was concluded in Moscow. The document, known as the Moscow Treaty, envisioned cuts to 1,700-2,200 warheads by December 2012.
