Washington has accused on Tuesday Moscow of violating the New START Treaty by refusing to allow inspection activities on its territory hence threatening the viability of US-Russian nuclear arms control and preventing the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty, a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
The New START treaty caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Washington and Moscow are allowed to deploy and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
Though it claimed it will comply with the provisions of the treaty, Moscow suspended cooperation with inspections under the treaty in August blaming travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies after Russia invaded Ukraine last February.
Moscow had a clear path for returning to compliance by allowing inspection activities, the State Department spokesperson stressed, adding that Washington remains ready to work with Russia to fully implement the New START treaty, the last major pillar of post-Cold War nuclear arms control between the two countries.
No new date was set for a meeting by either side after Moscow postponed the talks on resuming inspections under the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty that were due to take place in Egypt in November.
Accusing Washington of trying to inflict strategic defeat on Russia in Ukraine, Moscow pointed out that the New START, which came into force in 2011, could expire in 2026 without a replacement after it was extended in 2021 for five more years.
The fact that Washington’s ties with Russia are the worst in decades over the war in Ukraine could complicate Attempts by the Biden administration- which has been keen to preserve the treaty – to maintain and reach a follow-on agreement.
The United States and Russia still account together for about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads after being constrained by a tangle of arms control agreements during the Cold War.
