WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s drive to ratify the New Start nuclear treaty with Russia by year’s end suffered a serious setback on Tuesday when a key Republican senator said there was not enough time this year to resolve remaining differences.
The statement by Jon Kyl, the No 2 Senate Republican, prompted the vice-president, Joe Biden, to warn that failure to pass the treaty this year would endanger US national security by leaving the two countries blind to each others’ nuclear intentions.
Mr Biden said the administration had moved to address Mr Kyl’s concerns about nuclear modernisation, making clear it planned to invest $80 billion over the next decade to upgrade US nuclear forces, and pledging an additional $4.1 billion for the next five years following consultations with Kyl.
Mr Kyl has taken the Republican lead in negotiations with the administration on the treaty, which was signed by Mr Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in April and committed the former cold war foes to cut deployed nuclear weapons by about 30 per cent, to no more than 1,550 within seven years.
The treaty must be approved by the US Senate and the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before it will enter into force.
Mr Medvedev has pushed the Kremlin-controlled Duma not to ratify the treaty until Senate approval is certain.
It was unclear whether the accord could move to a vote of the full Senate without Mr Kyl’s support. Democrats need significant Republican backing to muster the 67 votes to ratify the treaty in the 100-member chamber. Senate aides say Mr Kyl is key to approving the treaty this year.
Mr Kyl, who has been pressing for more funds to modernise US strategic forces, issued a statement on Tuesday morning saying he did not believe the outgoing US Congress had the time to finish its work on Start because of other pressing business.
“When Majority Leader Harry Reid asked me if I thought the treaty could be considered in the lame-duck session, I replied I did not think so given the combination of other work Congress must do and the complex and unresolved issues related to Start and modernization,” Mr Kyl said.
Mr Obama has made ratification of the treaty one of his top priorities for the remaining weeks of Congress.
He reassured Mr Medvedev on Sunday that he was committed to getting Senate approval for the accord by the end of the year.
Democrats fear the treaty will face greater opposition when the new Congress is seated next year because losses in recent nationwide elections left them with only a slim majority in the Senate.
– (Reuters)