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US meets Russian delegation in Geneva for nuclear arms control talks — Reuters

A US State Department official tells the newswire that the US will meet with a Chinese delegation later on February 24

© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

GENEVA, February 24. /TASS/. US officials met with a Russian delegation in Geneva on Monday to discuss forging a potential multilateral nuclear arms control treaty, Reuters quoted a US State Department official as saying.

According to him, the United States will meet with a Chinese delegation later on February 24. Earlier, the United States held good bilateral talks with Britain and France, the other two members of the UN Security Council. He called taking discussions to the five permanent UN SC members "the next logical step."

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START Treaty), the last of the international legal restrictions on the deployment of nuclear weapons, expired on February 5 and was not extended through the fault of the United States. Washington said it expects to sign a better document by involving China.

If the US is seriously interested in making China part of a potential multilateral conversation on nuclear arms control, then the UK and France — Washington’s NATO allies — should also take part in the process, Gennady Gatilov, Russian permanent representative to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, insisted.

Iran's nuclear program

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Russian Armed Forces placed second in world's strongest armies list

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Russia becomes leading country in unmanned systems — Medvedev

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US seeks to turn UN into State Department branch, Russian lawmaker says

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