Signing the treaty is one thing, but getting it ratified in the American Congress and Russian Parliament is another. Anti-treaty sentiment is accumulating over the key issue of missile defense. Russian officials and scholars are unhappy with the treaty's weak linkage between offensive and defensive weapons, while Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose any linkage whatsoever. The reference to defensive weapons in the treaty's preamble satisfied neither. President Obama will have to expend yet more political energy to win support for ratification from Republican Senators. The Russian Parliament has said it will not ratify the treaty unless Congress does so.

Even if the treaty is ratified and comes into force by the end of this year, if President Obama is serious in his commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia will need to negotiate further cuts and limit future development of missile defense capabilities. If the nuclear superpowers do not dramatically and irreversibly reduce their nuclear arsenals they will be unable draw other nuclear powers into the disarmament process. Crucially, if the United States is not prepared to accept limits to its missile defense capability, the disarmament process will be endangered. Last Tuesday, just two days before the signing ceremony in Prague, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that Russia may even withdraw from the arms reduction treaty if Washington significantly improves its missile defense.

The new START Treaty is a positive move in the direction of President Obama's goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. But it is only the first step on a long journey.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/node_7075398.htm