MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. The expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) may create a vacuum in terms of international tools to maintain strategic stability, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Ambassador-at-Large Grigory Mashkov said.

"It’s quite possible that after New START expires in February 2026, a vacuum will be created in the field of international legal tools to maintain strategic stability in the long term," Mashkov noted in an interview with the International Affairs magazine.

"This is why it seems crucial to preserve the existing missile capabilities and in practical terms, to explore the idea of enhancing New START by creating a single integrated national missile defense system to counter threats from the outside," the diplomat noted.

"The previous formula of strategic stability, which was based on the bipolar nuclear missile parity, has exhausted and even discredited itself because it allowed Western countries to strengthen their positions on other tracks and expand their zones of influence without facing any serious consequences for a long time," Mashkov emphasized. "Reducing strategic offensive arms without taking into account the joint missile capabilities of the Euro-Atlantic alliance and some Asian countries is counterproductive," he added.

Mashkov highlighted the need to take into consideration other aspects of strategic stability, "including new weapons, imbalances in terms with conventional arms and the military space industry, as well as legal obligations to recognize a common and indivisible security space and the need to prevent attempts to strengthen one’s security at the expense of others."

"The opportunities for talks and mutually acceptable solutions are shrinking amid turbulence and aggressive confrontation on the international stage, and the lack of trust," the diplomat noted.