The Obama administration moved from policy formulation to initiating the process for negotiating a follow-on treaty to START. Also provided is background information about the US delegation’s chief negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, as well as the key negotiators from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of Energy, and the intelligence community. As the delegation membership rounded out, initial US and Russian proposals and ideas surfaced in the media and at various forums. An initial meeting in Rome between Gottemoeller and her Russian counterpart, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, occurred later in April. The two sides used this opportunity to sound each other out as to areas of potential negotiation and friction.