Russia says working with US on ways to resume inspections under New START Treaty

The Embassy of the Russian Federation to the US said in a statement published on Saturday that Washington's position that sanctions do not prevent Russia from conducting New START Treaty inspections in the United States is "misleading", reported TASS, citing Newsweek. However, now both the nations are working with each other on ways to resume inspections under New START Treaty. It is to mention that all the inspection-related activities under the New START Treaty have been suspended by mutual agreement, stated the Russian embassy.

Earlier, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the key reason, the Russian government had suspended an arrangement that allowed US and Russian inspectors to visit each other's nuclear weapon sites for inspection under the 2010 New Start Treaty.

Russia says US' claim that sanctions don't prevent Moscow from nuclear inspections is 'misleading'

"The inspection activities under the New START Treaty have indeed been suspended since early 2020 by mutual agreement due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the Russian embassy said. It was further noted that the Russian officials are closely working with American colleagues to resolve organisational and technical issues to re-start inspections.

"We are working closely with our American colleagues within the framework of the New START Bilateral Consultative Commission to remove organisational and technical obstacles to resuming inspections," the embassy said, adding that "some issues have been resolved but by no means all of them."

The Russian Embassy highlighted that the remaining problem is due to anti-Russian restrictive measures imposed by America.

"The remaining problems stem from the anti-Russian restrictive measures imposed unilaterally by the United States. The State Department's stated that the sanctions do not prevent our inspectors from conducting verification procedures on US territory, which is "misleading," the Russian diplomats stated.

The Russian Embassy further asserted that cooperation on matters of arms control should be held on an equal basis and mutual concerns and interests should be considered. Recalling Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden's commitment to resume the New START, the Russian Embassy said both countries had reaffirmed it "in the August messages to the participants of the 10th NPT Review Conference."

"The US president stated that the administration was ready to negotiate a new arms control framework expeditiously. However, we have received no concrete proposals from Washington on the resumption of the bilateral dialogue on strategic stability," the Russian embassy further noted, saying that the New START Treaty expires in 3.5 years, and even if Russia and the US reach some negotiation, the remaining time to work out an agreement is extremely short.

Image: AP