BERLIN, February 7. /TASS/. Moscow and Washington’s fulfillment of their obligations under the New START treaty is a practical example of progress toward nuclear disarmament in difficult times, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Practical progress in the area of nuclear disarmament is possible even during periods that are difficult from the point of view of security policy. An example of it was yesterday’s deadline for fulfilling obligations under the New START treaty," the statement reads. "By this date, the United States and Russia have reduced their strategic nuclear arsenals to limits stipulated by the New START."
The Federal Foreign Office called on the United States and Russia to continue negotiations in order to extend the treaty and outline further actions to limit their strategic nuclear arsenals.
"We favor a timely - that is, before the New START treaty expires - agreement between the US and Russia on further control over strategic nuclear weapons," the statement reads, adding that Germany called for "launching negotiations on the issue as soon as possible."
Berlin believes that the New START "has created an efficient system of verification" for efforts to limit and reduce strategic offensive weapons.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry announced that "Russia has fulfilled its commitments on strategic offensive arms reduction." The US Department of State also said it had curtailed its strategic nuclear arsenal to levels stipulated by the treaty.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed by the Russian and US presidents in Prague on April 8, 2010 and came into force on February 5, 2011. The New START Treaty limits the US and Russia to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), heavy bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) by February 2018.