Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called for the last nuclear deal between his country and the United States to be saved’ and proposed an extension of at least a year.
Putin's remarks come amid contradictory
signals from Russian and US diplomats about the fate of the new START
agreement, which expires in February unless Moscow and Washington agree to
extend it.
Addressing his Security Council meeting,
Putin said it would be "extremely regrettable" that the agreement would
be terminated without replacing it with another key document of its kind.
"Over the years, New Start has played
a key role in limiting and including the arms race," he noted.
WE President Barack Obama and Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev signed the new START agreement in 2010. Under the
agreement, each country is not limited to more than 1,550 nuclear warheads and
700 deployed missiles and bombers, and is inspected’ separately at the site to
verify compliance.
After both Moscow and Washington withdrew
from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, the new start
is the only nuclear arms control agreement between the two countries.
Earlier, Russia offered an unconditional
five-year extension, while the US administration called for a new arms control
treaty that would include China. Moscow has called the idea unworkable,
pointing to Beijing's refusal to negotiate a deal that would go far beyond its
nuclear arsenal.
On Friday, Putin proposed an
"unconditional one-year extension of the current agreement" to allow
"concrete talks". He stressed that Russia is ready to discuss new
weapons in future arms talks with the United States.
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed skepticism about reaching an agreement on a
new START, saying Russia could not accept the terms offered by the United
States for its expansion.
Lavrov made it clear that Russia could not
agree with the US proposal to limit nuclear weapons to the battlefield with
nuclear weapons, which would be equipped with strategic missiles and bombers as
long as the United States does not have its own nuclear weapons. Does not agree
to withdraw from Europe.
He also noted that Moscow would not accept
US demands, such as measures to endorse the intervention that existed in the
1990s when inspectors were stationed’ at missile factories.
Lavrov's pessimistic views contradict
statements by US diplomats, who said Moscow and Washington were close to an
agreement.
"We would welcome the opportunity to
complete the agreement based on the agreements reached over the past two weeks
on what the prospects look like for the expansion of the new start and as a
result in US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the world has
weapons.
"I hope that the Russians will find a
way to agree on a conclusion that, in fact, I think is in their best interest
and in our best interest," Pompeo said. He indicated that China would
eventually join the talks.
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