US AND RUSSIA AGREE NUCLEAR CUTS

OBAMA AND RUSSIAN LEADER
ANNOUNCE NUCLEAR DEAL

MOSCOW (The New York Times) — US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have reached an outline agreement to cut back their nations' stockpiles of nuclear weapons.The "joint understanding" signed in Moscow would see reductions of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 each within seven years of a new treaty. The accord would replace the 1991 Start I treaty, which expires in December.

The United States and Russia, seeking to move forward on one of the most significant arms control treaties since the end of the cold war, announced Monday that they had reached a preliminary agreement on cutting each country’s stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons by as much as one-third.

The two sides intend to build momentum for a broader agreement to be negotiated starting next year to impose even deeper cuts in their nuclear arsenals and put the world on a path toward eliminating nuclear weapons altogether. On the immediate treaty, negotiators are to be instructed to craft an agreement that would cut strategic warheads for each side to between 1,500 and 1,675, down from the limit of 2,200 slated to take effect in 2012 under the Treaty of Moscow, which was signed in 2002 by the presidents at the time, Mr. Bush and Vladimir V. Putin. While only a first step, the agreement was reached only after arduous negotiations and both sides wanted to produce something so they could call the summit meeting a success and further the effort to improve relations.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The theory that the modern atomic bomb explosions can annihilate the world is childish imagination. First of all, the atomic energy is not powerful enough to destroy the world. And secondly, ultimately it all rests on the supreme will of the Supreme Lord because without His will or sanction nothing can be built up or destroyed. It is foolish also to think that natural laws are ultimately powerful. Material nature's law works under the direction of the Lord, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā. The Lord says there that natural laws work under His supervision.

The world can be destroyed only by the will of the Lord and not by the whims of tiny politicians. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa desired that the weapons released by both Drauṇi and Arjuna be withdrawn, and it was carried out by Arjuna at once. Similarly, there are many agents of the all-powerful Lord, and by His will only can one execute what He desires.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 1 - Chapter 7 - Verse 32"