Russia is ready to commit itself to freeze nuclear warheads together with the US, the Foreign Ministry said.
"Russia proposes to extend the START Treaty (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) for one year and at the same time is ready to make a political commitment with the US to "freeze" for a period of time the number of nuclear warheads available to the parties," the message of the Ministry reads.
The ministry stressed that the proposal could be implemented "strictly and exclusively on the understanding that the "freezing" of the warheads would not be accompanied by any additional US requirements.
"If Washington is satisfied with this approach, then the time won as a result of the START extension can be used for complex bilateral negotiations on the future nuclear missile control with mandatory consideration of all factors affecting the strategic stability," the Foreign Ministry added.
Last week, Vladimir Putin proposed to extend the existing START system without any conditions for a year. Thus, the President noted, it would be possible to conduct meaningful negotiations on all disarmament parameters.
However, according to the Foreign Ministry, the Russian side has not received an official response from Washington on the note. At the same time, the White House national security advisor Robert O'Brien said that the US refused the proposal.
The START-3 between Russia and the United States came into force on February 5, 2011. It stipulates that each side reduces its nuclear arsenals so that in seven years and beyond, the total number of weapons does not exceed 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers, as well as 1,550 warheads and 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers.
The agreement obliges Moscow and Washington to exchange information on the number of warheads and launchers twice a year. On February 5, 2018, the deadline by which Russia and the United States were to reach the START-3 benchmarks came.
The treaty expires in February 2021, Washington at different levels emphasizes the need to include Beijing in negotiations to develop a new trilateral nuclear agreement between Russia, China and the United States. The Chinese side rejects this idea. Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stressed that Moscow advocates the extension of the START-3 without preconditions.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Based on materials RIA Novosti