WASHINGTON, November 13. /TASS/. The United States is considering Russia’s proposal on adhering to the restrictions under the New START Treaty for one more year separately from the problem of the Ukrainian conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
"They’ve expressed publicly some interest in it. So, we’re viewing that. And I think that’s, you know, we bifurcate that from the whole Ukraine lens context," he told reporters after a G7 ministerial meeting in Canada. "But I don’t have any news on that today."
He admitted that currently there is "no active open" dialogue between Washington and Moscow on the future of the New START Treaty. "There’s conversations [in the US administration] about potentially speaking to them (the Russian authorities - TASS) about that," he noted, adding that "communications with the Russians" are maintained "every day," although not at the ministerial level.
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. The Treaty was signed for a term of ten years, until February 5, 2021, with a possibility of a further extension upon the parties’ mutual consent.
In February 2021, Moscow and Washington extended the treaty, described by the Russian authorities as the golden standard in the sphere of disarmament, for the maximal possible five years.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 21, 2023 that Russia was suspending its participation in New START but was not withdrawing from it. The president stressed that before returning to the discussion of the extension of the treaty, the Russian side wanted to understand how 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.
On September 22, Putin stated at a meeting with the Russian Security Council that Russia was prepared to continue adhering to the treaty's quantitative restrictions for another year after the New START expires in February. However, he emphasized that this measure is only viable if Washington follows suit.
Answering a TASS question on October 5, Trump said that Putin’s proposal "sounds like a good idea.".