The Kremlin states that it is still awaiting an official response from the United States to the proposal to extend the New START nuclear treaty, the last strategic arms control agreement still in force between Moscow and Washington.
Russia has not yet received a response from the United States to President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to informally extend the provisions of the New START nuclear treaty for a year, the last pact of this kind still in force between the two powers, the Kremlin announced on Thursday, January 15, according to Reuters.
The New START treaty is set to expire at the beginning of February, in about three weeks, and US President Donald Trump has not yet provided an official response to the offer made by the Kremlin leader in September last year.
“No, we have not received a response. We are certainly waiting for a response to Putin’s initiative; we consider it a very important issue,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to journalists.
Signed in 2010 by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, the New START treaty sets strict limits on the strategic nuclear weapons of the two states, namely the systems that could be used in the event of a nuclear conflict.
The agreement caps the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 for each party and limits to 700 the number of ground-launched ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles, and bombers capable of carrying them.
New START is the last agreement still in force from a series of treaties signed since the 1970s, which have contributed for decades to maintaining a relatively stable nuclear balance between Moscow and Washington, even in periods marked by severe international tensions.
President Donald Trump recently told the American press that, “if it expires, then it expires,” emphasizing that he prefers to replace it with a more ambitious agreement, which would also include China.
However, Beijing rejected the idea of involvement in such a trilateral arrangement, stating that it is unreasonable and unrealistic to be asked to participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations, given that its arsenal remains significantly smaller than those of the United States and Russia, even though it is growing.
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