Moscow, August 09 (QNA) - The Russian presidency (the Kremlin) announced today that Moscow has not received proposals from Washington to negotiate the START III Treaty, which will be in effect until 2026.
Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said in a statement that the Kremlin has not received any US response in this regard. However, he stressed at the same time the need for dialogue on a new monitoring system that would replace the START III Treaty.
This announcement comes after Russia informed the US on Monday that it will temporarily close its military sites to on-site inspections within the framework of the START III Treaty in the pretext that Russia was unable to implement the same measures on US soil due to the sanctions imposed by Washington on Moscow in the wake of its military operation in Ukraine.
Russia's launch of its military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24 constituted a new turning point in the level of relations between the two countries, the repercussions of which reached the point of freezing negotiations on nuclear arms control. However, Washington may decide to resume its negotiations with Moscow in this regard, especially after US President Joe Biden expressed in early August his administration's desire to renegotiate.
It was in Feb. 2021 that Russia and the US announced the entry into force of the decision to extend the START III Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, for a period of five years.
Under the treaty, the two countries' nuclear arsenals were kept at a much lower level than during the Cold War, when the number of installed strategic nuclear launchers was set at 700 and the number of nuclear warheads at 1,550. (QNA)