Washington, D.C.— House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) released the joint statement below after President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START Treaty, which would reduce the total number of U.S. and Russian deployed nuclear weapons by 30 percent:

"This morning, President Obama opened a new chapter in our continuing efforts to keep our nation—and our world—secure. The road before us to a world free of nuclear threats is long and will at times be difficult, but the signing of the historic New START Treaty today moved us miles ahead toward reaching this final destination. 

“This new treaty comes at a critical time, as we approach the May Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The U.S. and Russia sent a clear message to the world by agreeing to reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons for security while also reaffirming important measures to verify and inspect strategic arms. This new commitment from the world’s two largest nuclear super powers will only strengthen President Obama’s efforts at the conference to impose stiffer punishments on nations accused of violating the NPT. 

“We urge our colleagues in the Senate to move forward quickly and deliberately to ratify this treaty, and we look forward to helping to shape measures to implement the treaty. We also look forward to working with the Administration in the coming months to help implement the policies outlined in the Nuclear Posture Review released earlier this week.” 

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