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Putin welcomes US administration following through on promise to extend New START

Putin proposed "speaking about other steps aimed at containing an arms race and arms control in general"

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed the US decision to extend the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START).

"We recently extended the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, New START, with our American partners," the president recalled at a meeting with permanent members of the Russian Security Council Thursday.

"We have been long suggesting this to our American partners. We are glad to note that the new administration honored their election campaign promises in this regard," Putin said. "We welcome this decision."

At the meeting, the leader proposed "speaking about other steps aimed at containing an arms race and arms control in general."

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Speaker of the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Valentina Matviyenko, Deputy Head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Chief of the Presidential Staff Anton Vaino, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin and Special Presidential Representative for Environmental Protection, Ecology and Transport Sergei Ivanov.

Russia and the US signed New START in 2010. On February 3, 2021, the Russian Foreign Minsitry hosted an exchange of official notes with the US embassy signaling completion of internal procedures necessary to extend the treaty.