Putin proposes extending the new START treaty for one more year

Elaf from Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Friday that Moscow and Washington unconditionally extend the “New START” treaty, the last basic agreement between the two countries to limit nuclear weapons, for one year in an offer rejected by the White House.

“I have a proposal: to extend the current agreement without preconditions for at least a year so that we can carry out real negotiations,” Putin said in a Kremlin statement during the Security Council meeting.

Putin asked Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “to formulate our position to try to get at least a somewhat coherent response (from the United States) in the near future.”

On Friday, the United States was quick to declare Putin’s offer to extend the “New START” treaty to reduce nuclear weapons for one year “without conditions” is “unacceptable.”

“The response of the Russian president today that he seeks to extend New Start without freezing nuclear warheads is unacceptable,” US President Robert O’Brien’s national security adviser wrote in a tweet.

He added that the United States had previously proposed a one-year extension to clear the way for negotiation beyond the treaty term in February, on the basis that the world’s two largest nuclear states freeze nuclear warheads in the interim period.

“This would have been a victory for both parties, and we believe that the Russians were ready to accept this proposal when I met my counterpart in Geneva,” he continued in the tweet.

“The United States is serious about arms control that will keep everyone safe. We hope that Russia will reassess its position before a costly arms race occurs,” he said.

The “New START” treaty is the last major agreement between the United States and Russia to reduce nuclear weapons. The treaty limits the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can possess to 1,550.

The new START agreement was signed in April 2010 but entered into force in February 2011. The term of the agreement is ten years, subject to extension.

Tensions rose for months over the fate of the treaty, which limits the number of nuclear warheads that Washington and Moscow can possess, and whose deadline expires on February 5, 2021.

On Friday night, the national security adviser to the president of the United States, Robert O’Brien, wrote in a tweet that “the United States proposed an extension of the new START treaty for one year in exchange for freezing the nuclear warheads of the United States. and Russia during this period. “

He added: “The response of the Russian president today, who seeks to extend New START without freezing nuclear warheads, is unacceptable.”

The United States had reported earlier this week that it had reached an initial agreement with Russia to extend the treaty, but Moscow was quick to reject the United States’ terms.

With only three weeks left until the US elections, which polls show, President Donald Trump’s popularity has waned against his opponent, Joe Biden, the US administration has indicated that it will support maintaining the treaty for an unspecified period.

Putin said on Friday it would be “extremely regrettable” if the treaty, which managed to contain an arms race, expires without being replaced by a similar one.

The agreement was signed in 2010 at the height of hopes of relaunching relations between Moscow and Washington, in a process led by then-US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.

However, the level of tension rose again rapidly with Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012.

Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow prefers to extend the existing treaty for a further five years without conditions, but is nevertheless ready to reach a new agreement with the Americans.

He said Moscow had presented Washington with some “concrete proposals.”

He said the United States responded with a series of proposals, which were described as preconditions for the extension of “New Start.”

These “numerous” proposals are outside the framework of the agreement and “outside of our responsibility,” Lavrov said, without elaborating.

In addition to the INF Treaty from the Cold War period, New START was considered a pillar to stop the arms race between the great powers.

In 2019, the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which bans missiles capable of hitting European cities, after it said Moscow was violating it.

The Trump administration has insisted to no avail that its adversary China enter the new START treaty, which limits the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can possess to 1,550.

“What the Americans are offering is a completely new deal,” Vasily Kashin, a military expert at the Moscow Higher School of Economics, told AFP.

In addition to the issue of China’s accession, Washington’s insistence that New START or its alternative includes both tactical nuclear weapons and new weapons was another issue in the talks, according to Kachin.

Russia’s arsenal of short-range tactical nuclear weapons is believed to be larger and more varied than the US arsenal, so it would be a “unilateral concession” from Moscow, he said.

In the current situation, extending the treaty for a year would be “ideal,” according to Kashin, who added: “It is an opportunity to preserve it.”

The director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Dmitry Trenin, wrote in a tweet that Putin did not want to make concessions “just to help the Trump campaign,” noting that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, supports the extension of the treaty.