MUNICH — The US and Russia on Saturday finalized a nuclear arms treaty that limits the number of atomic warheads the former Cold War foes are allowed to possess — securing a key foreign policy goal of President Barack Obama.
The New START treaty was approved by the US Senate in December after Obama pressed strongly for its passage, and Russia ratified the deal last month.
The treaty went into effect when US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton exchanged the ratification papers with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich.