New START should cover UK’s, France’s arsenals, if NATO is its party — Russian MP
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
MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Russia is ready to hold talks with NATO on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), but the new treaty should cover the United Kingdom’s and France’s nuclear potentials, a Russian lawmaker said on Tuesday.
"Now, as our president has said, we are not against NATO’s participation in further talks on this matter, which, naturally, will mean that this or a new treaty will cover nuclear potentials of the United Kingdom and France," Vladimir Chizhov, first deputy chairman of the defense and security committee of the Federation Council, or upper parliament house, said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.
"I think that it would be difficult to speak about any constructive talks or agreements in this sphere now. The current level of geopolitical confrontation and tension in the world is so high that any talks look to be problematic," he said, adding that when it is possible, Russia will insists that the United Kingdom’s and France’s nuclear potentials be taken into account.
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.
In his State of the Nation Address delivered earlier on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the New START treaty but is not withdrawing from it. The president stressed that before returning to the discussion of the extension of the New START Treaty, the Russian side wants to understand how the New START will take into account not only the United States’ arsenals but also stockpiles of other NATO nuclear powers, namely the United Kingdom and France.