US, Russia to hold New START consultative commission meeting: Price

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State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced on Tuesday that the US and Russia will soon hold a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) bilateral consultative commission meeting.

"The BCC [Bilateral Consultative Commission] will meet in the near future," Price confirmed during a press briefing.

The top diplomat said the US hopes to hold a New START consultative commission meeting with Russia soon and expects it will help resume mutual inspections of both countries' nuclear arsenals under the treaty.

"We hope that the meeting of the BCC [Bilateral Consultative Commission] will allow us to continue with those inspections," he added.

In September, the Russian Foreign Ministry said 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.

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.

Sanctions on Russia made New START Treaty "impossible": Diplomat

In late August, Anatoly Antonov, Russia's Ambassador to Washington, pointed out that US restrictions against Russia have made Russian inspections under the New START Treaty impossible.

"After the inspection activity under the New START Treaty was `frozen’ in 2020 due to COVID-19, we engaged in an active dialogue with the Americans on its resumption. We used the appropriate diplomatic channels including the Bilateral Consultative Commission. We were able to solve a number of organizational and technical issues related to conducting inspections during the pandemic. However, the process was seriously complicated by the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Washington," Antonov mentioned.

The Russian diplomat explained that closed airspace to Russian aircraft by US allies and complications obtaining transit visas for inspectors and flight crews have "created conditions which impede, if not block, our ability to conduct inspections on the US territory."

Furthermore, the Ambassador rebuffed the US State Department's claims that Washington's sanctions were "fully compatible" with New START and did "not prevent" Russian inspections under the treaty in the US.

"The New START verification mechanism cannot function one-sided. The Treaty is based on principles of equality and mutual consideration of interests. Until they are fully implemented, resumption of inspections is detrimental to us," Antonov explained.

"We continue to work with the US side to resolve the issues at hand. Washington should not in word but in deed demonstrate adherence to the Treaty and a good faith commitment to its obligations," the Russian diplomat concluded.

On August 8, Moscow informed Washington that it is temporarily halting inspections at its facilities covered by the New START Treaty. The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that Russia was forced to resort to such actions "due to Washington’s persistence in implicitly restarting inspections on conditions that do not take into account the existing realities, create unilateral advantages for the United States and actually strip Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US soil."

US President Joe Biden had said his administration is ready to negotiate a new arms control framework to replace the New START treaty with Russia upon its expiry in 2026.

It is noteworthy that Russia and the United States announced in February 2021 the entry into force of the decision to extend the START 3 Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms for a period of five years.

The Treaty kept the two countries' nuclear arsenals at a much lower level than during the Cold War, as it set the number of installed strategic nuclear launchers at 700 and the number of nuclear warheads at 1,550.