Prague - As soon as in two weeks, Prague may host the leaders of the United States and Russia, presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.
Russia and the USA are going to complete a new nuclear arms deal to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) from 1991 that expired in December 2009, and Prague is preferred by the both sides as a place where they would like to officially sign the new document.
„The petition came the last night, and we agreed. There is no date chosen yet, though. They only asked if it was possible (for Prague to host the meeting)," Aktuálně.cz was told today by Jiří Beneš from the Press office of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prague - a new symbol of non-proliferation?
Later, the AP Agency quoted a senior US official confirming that Prague will host the signing of the treaty. "We are still working to finalize a new START treaty but we have talked to our Czech allies and the Russians about a signing in Prague when the treaty is finished," said the official. "Prague is where the president delivered a speech outlining his arms control and nonproliferation vision last spring and where we always wanted to do a signing," the official was quoted by the AP.
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The senior administration official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because no deal has been officially announced.
If the final deal is reached quickly, the treaty may be signed in Prague at the beginning of April - in less than two weeks.
Prague was mentioned already in December 2009 as one of the cities where the two sides would like to sign the deal. The other was Bratislava, the capital of neighboring Slovakia, because Medvedev is going to visit Bratislava on 7 and 8 April 2010. Kiev was mentioned too, but the US officials refused this option.
For Obama, the signing will be his second visit to Prague as a president. On the contrary, Medvedev has never oficially visited the Czech capital.
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Police: Measures can be introduced on short notice
The most likely day of the signing is one day before or after Medvedev's visit to Bratislava, hence on Tuesday 6 or Friday 9 April 2010.
So far, the Czech police was not contacted. „I know about it (the visit) only from the media, however we are able to prepare any security measures on relatively short notice," police president deputy Ivan Bílek said to Aktuálně.cz, adding that everything depends on the program of both presidents.
„If the meeting will last only a few hours with no accompanying events, it will be of course easier for us," Bílek added.
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One year of talks
The new document is being prepared for almost a year, as Moscow and Washington differed on some important issues. Russia wanted the reduction to affect both nuclear warheads and its delivery vehicles - rockets, submarines and bombers, while the USA wanted the treaty to focus above all on warheads.
During a meeting in Moscow on 6 July 2009, Medvedev and Obama agreed on reducing the number of warheads to between 1,500 and 1,675 and the number of delivery vehicles to between 500-1,100.
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