Late last year, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expired, leaving no verifiable nuclear arms control agreement in effect between the world's two largest nuclear powers, the United States and Russia.
Now, the Senate is on the verge of taking up a new and stronger US-Russian nuclear disarmament agreement, the
New START Treaty. If ratified, the treaty will reduce deployed US and Russian nuclear weapons by about a third, to the lowest level in more than half a century. It also will cut the number of deployed delivery vehicles by more than half from START I levels.
The New START Treaty not only mandates significant cuts to the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, which account for more than 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. It also would demonstrate the US commitment to our disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the keystone global agreement for preventing the spread of these deadliest of weapons. By upholding our commitments, we will strengthen our ability to insist that others live up to their obligations as well.
The New START Treaty will bring us one step closer to a world free of nuclear weapons.
But first, we need to ratify it.
This will require the support of two-thirds of the Senate - no easy task, especially in an election year.
Opposition groups are already mobilizing to defeat the treaty. We need your help.
Please take just a few moments to personalize the letter below and send it to your Senators, urging them to vote in support of responsible nuclear disarmament.
For more information about the treaty,
click here.
