BERLIN, November 26. /TASS/. Russia is interested in keeping the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in place and hopes the United Stets will ultimately agree to hold talks on its extension, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Tuesday.
"We are interested in keeping the New START in place. Its extension will give extra time to take into account new factors that influence strategic stability, such as new technologies and the like," Grushko said. "Apart from that, the Treaty ensures our security and security of our partners. That is why we do have a hope that the United States will finally agree to start talks on the extension of the New START," he added.
He also said he hopes Washington will respond to Moscow’s initiative "to discuss all the aspects of strategic stability, including missile defense systems."
"It is very dangerous to simply sit back waiting for February 2021 when its is too late to conduct negotiations even if the parties have political will for that," Grushko stressed. "So, we invite the United States to begin consultations on the New START extension as soon as possible."
According to the senior Russian diplomat, Russia is ready to negotiate further reduction of strategic potentials but insists that China’s, Great Britain’s, France’s and, probably, other countries’ potentials be reckoned with not to give these players extra advantages.
New START
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) 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.
Moscow has repeatedly called on Washington not to delay extension of the treaty it describes as the gold standard in the area of disarmament.
Answering a TASS question on November 4, US President Donald Trump said the United States would like to sign a new arms control agreement with Russia, China and possibly a number of other countries. He did not say however whether the United States was planning to extend the New START agreement.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with The Financial Times in late June that once this treaty ceased to exist, "then there would be no instrument in the world to curtail the arms race."