Moscow, Washington Discuss New START Treaty in Geneva

MOSCOW – Delegations of Russia and the United States held the Seventeenth Session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission under the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction) Treaty in Geneva on April 3 through 12, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“The US and Russian delegations continued discussing practical issues related to the implementation of the Treaty,” the foreign ministry said.

Moscow and Washington signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty known as the New START treaty in 2010. It took effect in 2011. Under its terms either party shall reduce its strategic offensive arms in such a way that by the end of a seven-year period following the moment the treaty takes effect it should have no more than 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched missiles and heavy bombers, 1,550 warheads for them and 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM and SLBM launchers and heavy bombers.

The treaty shall stay in effect for ten years (up to 2021) unless it is replaced by another agreement by that moment. Or it can be prolonged for no more than five years (until 2026) by mutual consent. Moscow repeatedly urged Washington to avoid delays in prolonging that treaty, which it described as a gold standard in the field of disarmament.

In late October 2018, a White House official warned that Washington was highly unlikely to agree on extension of the New START treaty.

TASS

R.S