The foreign relations and defense committees of Russia's upper house of parliament recommended the chamber to approve the new arms reduction pact with the United States on Wednesday, the head of the committee said.
The new treaty, replacing the START I that expired in December 2009, was signed in Prague last April by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama. The agreement was ratified by the U.S. senate in late December and will come into force after it has been ratified by both houses of the Russian parliament.
The document slashes the Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads, down from the current ceiling of 2,200.
The lower house of the Russian parliament will hold its third reading of the bill on the ratification of the treaty on Tuesday.
When the treaty is ratified, the senate will send an accompanying document to the U.S. side, together with a statement from the State Duma.
"In this document we will note that the ratification of the new START treaty does not put an end to discussion on nuclear arms reduction and missile defense," committee head Mikhail Margelov said.
The State Duma's statement proposes that Russia accelerate upgrades to its nuclear forces and monitor the deployment of U.S. missile defense in Europe. It also calls for the United States to remove U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons from Euro-Atlantic area.
"We sincerely hope that the ratification of the new START treaty will spur other nuclear countries to join us in future strategic offensive arms reductions," Margelov said.
MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti)
