Russia-US Commission on START postponed to a later date: Russia

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Nov 2022 18:23
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The scheduled bilateral consultative commission on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty has been postponed with no new date in sight.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Tass)

The bilateral consultative comission on the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the US and Russia has been postponed to a later date, the Russian Foreign Ministry revealed on Monday.

Earlier in the November, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced that billateral meeting between the two countries was scheduled for November 29 to December 6, following a September comment by the Russian MFA.

The MFA noted that the United States and Russia are discussing resuming inspections under the New START Treaty and plan to soon hold an in-person bilateral meeting of the consultative commission.

According to Sputnik, the Russian MFA said "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."

No further details have yet been revealed and no dates have been confirmed.

Russia: US violated New START treaty, hid number of strategic weapons

The Foreign Ministry confirmed in mid-October that Moscow and Washington exchanged notifications in September on the number of strategic offensive weapons under the New START Treaty.

In a release, the Russian Ministry explained that "information on the total quantities of strategic offensive weapons of Russia and the United States is given on the basis of the notifications provided for by the New START treaty, which the parties exchanged in September 2022 in accordance with paragraph 2 of Section II of Chapter Four of the Protocol to the Treaty."

According to the release, the number of strategic offensive weapons claimed by the United States does not take into account 41 heavy bombers B-52H, as well as other weapons that must be taken into account in accordance with the agreement.

"The number of strategic offensive arms declared by the United States does not take into account the 41 heavy bombers B-52H, which were declared converted by the US side, and the nuclear warheads counted behind them, as well as 56 launchers of SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) Trident-II, which are declared converted by the US side," the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out.

In addition, four ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) silo launchers, which the US has renamed "training silos", were not taken into account, the release mentioned.

"The Russian side cannot confirm that these strategic offensive arms have been made unsuitable for the use of nuclear weapons by heavy bombers and SLBMs, as provided for in paragraph 3 of Section I of Chapter Three of the Protocol to the Treaty, and also objects to the arbitrary reclassification of silos of ICBMs intended for training, in the category of 'training silos' provided for by the agreement in order to exclude them from the calculation," the Russian Ministry underlined.