Senator Leahy shares President Obama's and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. He supports the President's recent agreement in Moscow on the framework of a treaty to follow the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) which expires in December.  START I, which was negotiated in the late 1980's, ratified in 1993 and entered into force for 15 years starting in 1994, put limits on the number of nuclear warheads (6,000) and delivery systems, with a verification regime. On May 24, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) which limits the U.S. and Russia to 2,200 warheads each by December 31, 2012, but which does not include a verification regime and whose reductions expire upon the expiration of the treaty in 2012. The framework that President Obama and Russian President Medvedev agreed to would further limit the number of warheads and continue a verification process.

Senator Leahy also supports President Obama's push for the Senate to reconsider the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which the Senate failed to ratify in 1999.  The CTBT was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 10, 1996, but has not yet been ratified by the necessary number of countries for it to enter into force. 

While there is a current moratorium on nuclear testing, and treaties in force ban all but underground tests, the CTBT would ban all nuclear explosions and contains provisions for worldwide monitoring and enforcement.  After President Clinton signed the CTBT, the Senate voted 48-50 against ratification in October 1999, with Senator Leahy voting in favor of ratification. 

These and further measures are critical to fulfilling our obligations as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, particularly Article VI, which calls on all parties to the treaty to take measures relating to the “cessation of the nuclear arms race and to nuclear disarmament”.

As we work with Russia to negotiate new agreements to further reduce our nuclear arsenals, we must also focus on the growing threat posed by rogue states and terrorist groups that seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction, which can  be easily concealed and used without warning.  We must adapt to these new threats, coordinating with our allies in counter-proliferation efforts and building effective, more integrated intelligence capabilities.

President Obama said it well in Prague this spring:  "Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be stopped, cannot be checked -- that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction… I'm not naive. This goal will not be reached quickly -- perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change."