April 7, 2010Obama leaves for Prague to sign nuclear treaty
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday left the White House headed for Prague, to sign a new disarmament treaty with Russia which will slash Cold War-era nuclear stockpiles by nearly a third.
The US leader was set to fly overnight to the Czech Republic, where he was due to sign the replacement for the expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.
Obama was also expected to hold a press conference, and to have dinner Thursday with 11 central European heads of state and government, before returning to Washington on Friday, after talks with Czech leaders.
The new START treaty will reduce the number of deployed warheads by 30 percent from the levels set in the last major US-Russian disarmament treaty in 2002, specifying limits of 1,550 nuclear warheads for each of the two countries.
The treaty signing ceremony will be followed on Monday and Tuesday next week with a major summit of 47 nations in Washington, designed to forge a new global effort to secure loose weapons-grade nuclear material and ensure it does not fall into the hands of extremists. April 12-13-2010 ~ Obama to Host Nuclear Security Summit ...
Source: AFP
