Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The nuclear arms reduction talks (Start) between the US and Russia will continue in January, the two countries have announced, with both sides saying they believe good progress has been made. “This is a much different environment that we exist in today,” PJ Crowley, US State Department spokesperson said in a briefing Wednesday 22 December in Washington.

“We have confidence in the good faith on the Russian side.  I think they have confidence in the good faith on our side based on not only the working arrangement that the two teams have developed, but also the ongoing consultations that – and high level that we’ve had, including the meeting between President Obama and President Medvedev in Copenhagen last week.”

Medvedev, in Copenhagen 18 December with Obama commented on Start: “Our positions are very close, and we are now in agreement on nearly all the issues we have been discussing in recent months. We still need to negotiate a few technical details, which must be fully clarified in such an important treaty. I hope that we will be able to do this fairly quickly, and that the results we reach will reflect the partnership and close relations that we have established with the new U.S. administration.”

The negotiations have been veiled in secrecy, with a media blackout, but Ilya Kramnik, news agency Ria Novosti’s military commentator in Russia, writes Thursday morning that “there are three major sticking points in the new agreement:

1. how to link strategic arms reduction with restricting the global missile-defense system
2. limiting the “return potential” – the number of carriers and warheads which are stockpiled but could be brought back into action
3. control over mobile ground systems and restrictions on the areas of their deployment.

His assessment follows remarks made Tuesday by Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, that “the treaty will stipulate radical, unprecedented cuts in strategic offensive weapons.” Lavrov was speaking to faculty and students at the University of Global Economy and Diplomacy in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. It is unclear if he was providing new information or referring to the agreement by the two presidents to cut nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000. Lavrov told the university group that the treaty would “envision symmetrical [arms cuts] measures based on mutual trust and certain control procedures,” and link the reduction of nuclear arsenals with limitations on the number of non-nuclear strategic offensive weapons possessed by both countries, according to Ria Novosti.

Links to other sites: Global Security newswire, Ria Novosti, Russian Mission, Geneva, US Mission, Geneva

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