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Russian diplomat warns New START at risk of collapse following INF’s demise

Russia's acting UN envoy Dmitry Polyansky said that key figures in the current US administration have repeatedly said that they are not interested in keeping the New START Treaty in its current format

Russia's acting Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyasnky EPA-EFE/BRYAN R. SMITH

Russia's acting Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyasnky

© EPA-EFE/BRYAN R. SMITH

UNITED NATIONS, August 23. /TASS/. The New START (Strategic Arms Reduction) Treaty is now in jeopardy after Washington’s withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russian acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky cautioned on Thursday.

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It [the New START Treaty] expires in February 2021 and is also at risk. Key figures in the current US administration have repeatedly reiterated that they are not interested in keeping the New START deal in place in its current format," Polyansky said at an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council convened at Russia’s and China’s behest following the Pentagon’s recent missile tests.

"As of this August [following the termination of the INF], there are no restrictions on developing or deploying such systems," he said. "So, after the denunciation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, another pillar that once made it possible to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, has been removed the arms control architecture," he added.

The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and entered into force on February 5, 2011. The agreement stipulates that seven years after it goes 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.

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