UNITED NATIONS, November 18. /TASS/. It is still possible to extend the New START Treaty for five more years or at least for a shorter period but the time for consultations is running out, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS on Monday.
"We have less than a year and three months left before February 5, 2021," he noted. "Basically, we do have a possibility to reach an agreement on its extension."
The treaty, in his words could be extended "either for five years, as it is envisaged in the treaty, or for a shorter period." "It can be even extended for a year or two to have time and keep in place the system of checks, information exchange and other provisions of the treaty, to avoid vacuum and think over further steps," Ulyanov said.
"Our position is very constructive but the whole thing bumps up against Washington’s stance," he stressed.
Trilateral talks
The initiative on trilateral arms control talks between the United States, Russia and China has little chance unless two more nuclear powers - France and the United Kingdom - join them, Ulyanov told TASS.
"Basically, the United States’ idea about trilateral talks between Russia, the US and China is utterly exotic. It has not a slightest chance to be implemented in its present form," he said.
"It is quite logical to ask why China? China’s, Great Britain’s and France’s nuclear potentials are about the same, then why it is about China only," he said.
"In military terms, Great Britain and France are the United States’ allies in NATO," he noted. "It means that both we and the Chinese are supposed to consider their military potentials collectively."
"In such conditions, it looks to be a poorly-weighed, if not absurd, position to turn a blind eye on France’s and Great Britain’s nuclear arsenals focusing on China instead," he stressed.
The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and entered into force on February 5, 2011. The document stipulates that seven years after its entry into effect each party should have no more than a total of 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) and strategic bombers, as well as no more than 1,550 warheads on deployed ICBMs, deployed SLBMs and strategic bombers, and a total of 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, SLBM launchers and strategic bombers.
The New START Treaty will remain in force for 10 years, until 2021, unless it is replaced before that date by a subsequent agreement on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms. It can also be extended for no longer than 5 years (that is, until 2026) by the parties’ mutual consent.