The United States and Russia Tuesday began negotiations in Geneva aimed at drafting a new agreement on nuclear arms reductions to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991(START), which expired in 2009.
Although talks between the two major nuclear powers toward reaching a consensus started early last year, differences still remain.
Despite the talks being a "closed-door affair" the main sticking points apparently include verification and monitoring measures as well as Moscow's stiff opposition to Washington's plans to set up missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe.
Besides the ostensible objectives of nuclear arms reduction, the talks have a wider significance for the global community which is currently engaged in efforts to rein in both Iran and North Korea from going full throttle with their respective nuclear programs.
During U.S. President Barack Obama's meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in July it was informally agreed to slash the number of deployed warheads to 1,500 and 1,675 per side from the existing 2,200.
Meanwhile, Obama who openly advocates a nuclear-free world is to host a nuclear non-proliferation summit in Washington in April attended by representatives from 43 countries to discuss steps for securing vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism.
START was originally signed on July 31, 1991 in Moscow by the then U.S. President George H Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the erstwhile Soviet Union (USSR). However, the Soviet Union collapsed before the Treaty could be ratified.
But sustained diplomacy ensured that START finally came into effect in December 1994.
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