Russia is still waiting for the US to respond to President Vladimir Putin's proposal to informally extend the terms of the last remaining nuclear arms treaty, the Kremlin said today, quoted by world agencies, BTA reports.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the expiration of the New START Treaty on February 5 could lead to a serious breach in the legal framework for regulating nuclear weapons.
“This would be a serious deficit that hardly meets the interests of the peoples of our two countries, as well as people around the world, because we are talking about the global strategic stability“, Peskov added.
The “New START“ treaty, which was signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, establishes limits on the number of strategic weapons that each side could use against the other's critical political and military centers in the event of war, Reuters reported. The agreement limits the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 for each side and no more than 700 missiles and bombers that can carry them.
Peskov declined to comment on information published by Russian military bloggers and Ukrainian media that the two sides had agreed to stop attacks on energy infrastructure.
The spokesman also said that the potential for talks between the United States and Iran had not yet been exhausted and that any use of force against Tehran could create chaos in the region and have dangerous consequences.
In response to a question about whether the topic The extradition of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was raised during yesterday's talks between Putin and Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. Peskov said: "No, it was not discussed."
He pointed out that the talks were mainly devoted to bilateral trade and economic relations and their development. "The potential is quite broad and the interest is mutual," Peskov added.