MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Washington has not responded as of yet to Russia’s proposals to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, though the time for agreeing on this is running out, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn (International Life) magazine.

Under the treaty, it can be extended by another five years, the diplomat reiterated. "Why not taking advantage of this opportunity? Russian President [Vladimir Putin] said it publicly in Johannesburg, and [US President] Donald Trump said the same in Helsinki," he pointed out. "We cannot currently say conclusively and for certain why, but unfortunately there is no response," Ryabkov said.

"Is it because the American position has not been finalized, or because they are looking for a more favorable moment to formulate this position for some reasons of their own, or they don’t have the duly organized team that could deal with this?" he opined.

"But time is running out. It seems the year 2021 (when the START-3 treaty expires) is a long way to go, but this is not true. It is literally round the corner," he stressed.

He said at the Russia-US summit in Helsinki on July 16, the proposal was voiced to continue a dialogue on the settlement of a number of problems in the sphere of arms control. "This is an imperative of the moment, we cannot continue pretending that everything is ok, that the difficulties will be surmounted on their own, that problems will melt away on their own," the top diplomat said.

"On the contrary, difficulties in the sphere of armament control, in the sphere of stability are mounting," he said. Ryabkov also drew attention to Washington’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). They are using the so-called target-missiles, which in essence are the same intermediate-range missiles, and their launches even with an aim to test anti-missile systems in fact mean testing of medium-range missiles, banned by the treaty, he said.

"We also have questions on US combat UAV," he said, adding that the most important is problem is the deployment in Romania and soon in Poland of Mk41 launching systems within Aegis Ashore that can be used to fire ground-based cruise missiles.

"The very fact that I have been repeatedly saying this in different formats shows that we are not moving anywhere," the diplomat said in the interview, parts of which were posted on the website of the magazine on Monday.

START-3 was signed on April 8, 2010. It stipulates that by February 2018 the arsenal of each party shall be restricted by 1550 nuclear warheads, as well as 700 ICBM, heavy bomber and SLBM carriers. The treaty calls to exchange information on the number of warheads and carriers twice a year. It will remain in force until February 5, 2021 if it is not replaced by another strategic arms reduction agreement before that or can be extended for five years till 2026 by the mutual consent of the parties.

INF was signed on December 8, 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The parties agreed not to produce, test and deploy intermediate and shorter-range (500 to 5500 km) ground ballistic and cruise missiles. Russia and the United States have disagreed on IMF compliance of late and are accusing each other of violations. Moscow said it would nevertheless like to preserve the treaty.