Today in the Czech Republic, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia signed the Nuclear Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (called New Start). This treaty is aimed at reducing the number of nuclear arms held by both countries. Together the US and Russia own 90% of the nuclear arms in existence.

The objective of this treaty is that each country will decrease nuclear warheads by 30% while decreasing by half the instrumentalities used to carry them. The additional goals are to improve relations between the US and Russia and put increased pressure on Iran as it attempts to develop its own nuclear weapons.

The US Senate and Russian Duma still will need to ratify this treaty before it can take effect.

To read news coverage on this treaty, click here or here.

To read the text of the treaty, click here.

To read a comparison between this treaty and previous nuclear reduction treaties between the US and Russia, click here.