"After months of haggling with the Russians over US missile defense and its relation to the new START nuclear weapons agreement, President Obama announced victory today:
“With this agreement, the United States and Russia – the two largest nuclear powers in the world – also send a clear signal that we intend to lead. By upholding our own commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty, we strengthen our global efforts to stop the spread of these weapons, and to ensure that other nations meet their own responsibilities,” Obama said.
And while there are hints that Republican senators will block the START treaty because of an ambiguous mention of missile defense in the non-binding preamble of the accord, the White House is adamant that they stood up against the Russian demands to link missile defense to nuke cuts:
No Constraints on Missile Defense and Conventional Strike: The Treaty does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs or current or planned United States long-range conventional strike capabilities.
The White House has not released the text of the treaty, so I'll give them a temporary "bravo" if their claim of keeping the missile defense link out of START indeed pans out as advertised."