Russia to offer US new dates for New START talks - Russian Diplomat

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Russia will give the United States new dates for the talks on the New START Treaty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"I emphasize that this is not a cancellation, but a postponement. After some time, we will offer the Americans new dates. But it will not happen instantly," Ryabkov told reporters, adding that it is unlikely that the discussions will take place before the end of the year.

"And now it is premature to say how and when we will make these new proposals and what time period we will ultimately focus on," he said, noting that there will be a pause before the next meeting.

Moscow had no choice but to postpone the meeting on the New START in Cairo as the US did not want to take into consideration Moscow's priorities on the matter, the deputy foreign minister added.

"We are faced with a situation when our American colleagues in a number of areas demonstrated not only an unwillingness to perceive our signals and take into account our priorities but acted in the opposite way. There is, of course, the effect of what is happening in Ukraine and around it, I will not deny it," Ryabkov said.

The United States wanted to discuss only the issue of resuming inspections at the New START meeting in Cairo, while Russia had other issues as a priority, Ryabkov said on Tuesday.

"We saw, up to the moment when the postponement of the session was announced and after it became public, the focus by the Americans exclusively on the topic of resuming inspections under the New START. Meanwhile, for us, the priority has been and remains the solution of other issues," Ryabkov told reporters.

Also, Russia and the US failed to agree on a program of the consultations, the diplomat noted.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the United States has not received any clear explanation as to why Russia postponed the talks on the New START Treaty that were scheduled to take place in Cairo from November 29 to December 6, adding that the US wants to see talks with Russia take place as soon as possible.

This came after the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik "The session of the bilateral consultative commission on the Russian–US START Treaty, previously scheduled in Cairo [November 29 - December 6], will not take place on these dates. The event is postponed to a later date."