Vatican newspaper praises new US-Russia disarmament treaty

(April 9, 2010) The Vatican newspaper has hailed the new U.S.-Russia disarmament treaty as a "significant and courageous step toward international security." An article in Wednesday’s edition of L'Osservatore Romano praised President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for opening a new era of relations and being willing to "turn the page definitively on the logic of the Cold War." At a ceremony on Thursday in Prague, Obama and Medvedev signed the Start II treaty, which will cut nuclear arsenals in both countries by about 30 percent. Prague is where Obama last year outlined his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. The treaty needs approval by the U.S. Senate and the Russian parliament before taking effect. The Vatican has consistently lauded Obama's pledges to reduce nuclear weapons, and the article of the Vatican semi-official newspaper praised the new treaty as an important development.