US says ready to extend START nuclear pact, but rebuffed by Russia

Source: AFP Published: 2020/10/14 17:08:40

The Pentagon is seen from an airplane over Washington D.C., the United States, on July 11, 2018. The United States will fully develop ground-launched conventional missiles after withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Friday. Photo:Xinhua

The US said Tuesday it had reached an agreement in principle with Russia to extend New START, the last major nuclear treaty still in force, but Moscow quickly rejected US conditions.

US President Donald Trump's administration has been insisting without success that China enter the treaty, which has limited the US and Russia to 1,550 nuclear warheads each and expires on February 5.

With three weeks to go before US elections in which Trump is trailing in polls, the administration indicated it would support preserving the treaty for an unspecified period.

"We are in fact willing to extend the New START treaty for some period of time provided that they, in return, agree to a limitation - a freeze - on their nuclear arsenal," US negotiator Marshall Billingslea said.

"We believe that there is an agreement in principle at the highest levels of our two governments," he said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Billingslea cut short a trip to Asia last week to fly to Helsinki to see his Russian counterpart, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, saying that he sensed a breakthrough compromise.

But Ryabkov said that the US demand to freeze nuclear work in the interim was "an unacceptable proposition."

"If the Americans are in agreement with the documents that we handed them, a deal could even be reached tomorrow," Ryabkov said.

"But with so many differences, I cannot imagine on what basis our colleagues in Washington are putting out such theories," he told the Ria Novosti news agency.

Using similar language, Billingslea said that Russia needed to accept US proposals in his "gentlemen's agreement" with Ryabkov.

"We are ready to strike this deal. We can strike it tomorrow, in fact. But Moscow is going to have to show the political will to do so as well," Billingslea said in a statement.

At issue are US demands that Russia halt nuclear activities during the extension period and submit to verification.

Billingslea said that the US would also accept reciprocal inspections.

AFP

Posted in: EUROPE,AMERICAS,WORLD FOCUS

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