The new START treaty will come into force after the foreign ministers of Russia and the U.S.A. Sergey Lavrov and Hilary Clinton exchange ratification documents at a security conference in Munich.

Lavrov and Clinton will take part at the 47th Munich Security Conference which starts Saturday.

The treaty was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague by presidents of Russia and the United States, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama.

By concluding the New START the U.S. and Russia have reached another important milestone in bilateral relations and continue to maintain the momentum given by presidents Obama and Medvedev almost two years ago as a result of the reset of relations.

The treaty obliges the parties to reduce over seven years the total number of warheads by about a third.

The treaty limits each side to 1.550 strategic warheads, down from 2.200, over the next 10 years and limits each side to 700 deployed long-range missiles and heavy bombers.