Russia hopes to continue its strategic offensive arms contacts with the United States, despite the US rejection of Russia's proposal to extend the START Treaty. This position was expressed by Russian President's Press-Secretary Dmitry Peskov in a conversation with journalists on Monday.
"We hope that in any case contacts with the American side will continue", - said the Kremlin representative. "In general, of course, as President [of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin] has already said, an extension of the treaty would buy us time, buy us 12 months for substantive and serious arms control negotiations, because taking away our two countries, as well as the whole world, from this document - now the main cornerstone in the foundation of global stability and strategic security - would have very damaging consequences," Peskov said.
"Of course, we would still prefer to hear our American partners' willingness to extend this document," he stressed.
The Kremlin representative stated that "unfortunately, so far, there has been no really desired progress" in the interaction with the US on START. "But this does not mean that contacts should be stopped completely," he said. Peskov added that the Kremlin was not talking specifically about US President Donald Trump, but about the American side. "And we know that the American side has just refused to extend this document for a year," said the spokesperson for the Russian leader.
On October 16 Russian president Vladimir Putin proposed to prolong the Treaty on measures for further reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms (START) for at least one year without additional conditions. In his opinion, additional time gives an opportunity to hold meaningful negotiations. However, the USA refused this proposal.
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Based on materials from TASS