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US did not secretly deploy missile launchers in violation of New START — senior diplomat

The deputy foreign minister recalled that 18 inspections had been conducted annually
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov  Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov
© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Office/TASS

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russia believes that the United States has not carried out secret deployment of missile launchers in violation of the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the State Duma (lower house) on Wednesday.

"We proceed from the assumption that there was no secret deployment of missile launchers in the US in violation of the treaty," he said.

"The number of inspections (18 a year), demonstrations, exchanges of information through notifications and other measures, which, I must stress, are taken strictly on the parity basis and imply no unilateral obligations for Russia allow for complementing well enough the picture we get with the help of national technical means of monitoring the opponents," Ryabkov said.

He recalled that under the treaty the two sides were to exchange telemetry concerning the maximum number of ballistic missile launches - up to five a year on each side.

"In fact, in recent years telemetry was exchanged concerning one launch on each side. I believe that a sufficient balance of transparency and secrecy was observed - if I am allowed to make such a comment when no military officials are present here."

Deployed warheads

There are no reasons to speculate that the United States violated the caps on deployed warheads and delivery vehicles, established under the Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

"I cannot agree with those who say that the United States committed violations by failing to observe the caps on the deployed warheads and delivery vehicles. There is every reason to say that the United States adhered to these key provisions of the treaty, with certain allowances made for the problem of counting some of the re-configured launchers, which I have already mentioned," Ryabkov told the State Duma.

As far as the non-deployed warheads (retrievable potential) are concerned, Russia and the United States have equal rights and opportunities, Ryabkov said.

"I would not like to speculate about the retrievable potential that is at Russia’s disposal. It does exist. And any contacts with the United States on such issues, be it a bilateral consultative commission that monitors compliance with the treaty, or meetings at deputy foreign minister level, imply mandatory participation of officials from different branches of our Defense Ministry and other agencies with required competences in this sphere. We maintain tight inter-departmental cooperation," Ryabkov said.

Under the New START treaty Russia and the United States pledged to reduce and limit their strategic offensive arms over a period of seven years in such a way that their overall amounts should not exceed 700 deployed inter-continental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers; 1,500 warheads deployed on them; and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers. Both countries complied with their obligations by February 5, 2018.