New START extension provides opportunity to continue arms control discussion

Feb. 15, 2021 - PRLog -- Moscow and Washington have begun procedures to agree on a schedule of inspections and consultations within the framework of the extended treaty on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START, START-3). This was stated by the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov at a press conference at MIA Rossiya Segodnya on February 11.

"Regarding inspections – we need to resume them, we are now working on this and launching interdepartmental procedures required to restore them," he said.

At the same time, the diplomat noted that at the moment there is no understanding when a meeting of the joint Russian-US Consultative Commission under the New START Treaty can take place.

According to him, the parties "are just beginning to work on this [agreement]" and have to determine both the date and the agenda of the future meeting.

New START is the only active nuclear arms control agreement between Russia and the United States. The agreement was signed by the countries in 2010 and would have expired on 5 February 2021.

Moscow has repeatedly asked Washington not to delay with the extension of the document, describing it as the gold standard in the field of disarmament. However, the administration of the previous US President Donald Trump said it does not intend to renew the treaty in its current form, calling it a "bad deal." In addition, the White House proposed to expand the number of parties to the agreement by inviting China, but Beijing rejected this idea. The administration of President Joseph Biden has taken the opposite position on the New START.

On January 26, Moscow and Washington exchanged diplomatic notes on reaching an agreement to extend the New START Treaty. In a telephone conversation shortly thereafter, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden expressed satisfaction with this fact. On the same evening, the Russian leader submitted to the State Duma a bill on the ratification of the agreement to extend the New START Treaty for 5 years. The next day, both chambers of the Russian parliament voted unanimously to ratify the document. On January 29, the law was signed by Vladimir Putin.

On February 3, the Russian Foreign Ministry exchanged diplomatic notes regarding the completion of internal procedures required for the entry into force of the Agreement to extend the New START Treaty. Accordingly, the document entered into force on the same day. The Treaty will be valid exactly as it had been signed, without any amendments or additions, until 5 February 2026.

Source: https://penzanews.ru/en/analysis/67003-2021