MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The number of nuclear warheads and missile launchers in Russia and United States will be reduced to the lowest level since the end of 1950s - beginning of 1960s, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The New START (Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty) entered into force on 5 February 2011. The treaty is being successfully implemented, the foreign ministry said. "Separate technical issues that inevitably emerge in the process of implementing these agreements, are constructively and in a business-like manner considered in the bilateral consultation commission set up for these aims," the ministry said adding that "the agreement, of course, serves as an important factor of strengthening international security and stability."
"It envisages sufficient regime of transparency in military-strategic relations between our countries, secures predictability of the situation in this sphere. The Treaty is based on principles of equality and mutual account of interests. All its provisions are on a strict parity basis. We proceed from the fact that only such approaches should serve as the only basis of international agreements in the sphere of arms control," the foreign ministry added.
"Implementing provisions of New START is an example of Russia’s strict compliance with international commitments in the sphere of non-proliferation and arms control. We were always guided by this principled approach. We intend to strictly adhere to it in the future as well," the ministry concluded.