“New beginning” in the wind

The New Start Treaty will be the last major agreement between the United States and Russia to limit nuclear weapons, among the first files on the table of the next American president, as its deadline expires only two weeks after the president is sworn in on January 20. 2021. A treaty proposed by Russian President Yesterday, Vladimir Putin extended it for a year, unconditionally, in an offer rejected by the White House, after the last condition offered by Washington last week, and Moscow was quick to reject it.

With only about two weeks to go until the US presidential election, and opinion polls show that President Donald Trump’s popularity is declining against his opponent, Joe Biden, Putin suggested, at yesterday’s Security Council meeting. , “Extend the current agreement (New Start) without preconditions for at least one year. So that we can conduct real negotiations. “The Russian president asked Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov” to formulate our position to try to get a response (from the United States) in the near future. “The American response came from National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who 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,” noting that “the response of the Russian president today seeks “It is unacceptable to extend New START without freezing the nuclear warheads.” Last week, the US negotiator, Marshall Billingsley, expressed his country’s desire to “extend the New START treaty for a certain period, provided that (the Russians) agree in return to reduce – freeze – their nuclear arsenal,” explaining that States The United States continues to insist on the participation of China, whose nuclear program is growing steadily.

Trump administration insists on including China in the new START treaty

The Trump administration insists, to no avail, that China should be included in the new START treaty, which limits the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can possess to 1,550. In addition to the question of Beijing’s accession, Washington insists on that the treaty, or an alternative to it, includes tactical nuclear weapons. The new weapons were another issue in the talks. Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Center in Moscow, wrote in a tweet that Putin does not want to make concessions “just to help the Trump campaign,” noting that his Democratic rival Biden supports the extension of the treaty.

Subscribe to «News» on YouTube here