A new nuclear arms reduction treaty is “95 percent ready,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Sunday, in the clearest indication to date that an end to wrangling over the seminal agreement may be close.
Medvedev said he is optimistic that a deal will be reached and that he was heartened by the pace of negotiations. “I expected the negotiations to take longer, but in the space of six months we have created the backbone of a document,” he said.
Expert-level talks to iron out the final details of the treaty are due to take place next month in Geneva. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and retired Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, were in Moscow last week to discuss treaty negotiations.