The U.S. Administration has accused Russian authorities of «unilaterally» suspending talks, scheduled to begin Tuesday in Egypt, to reformulate the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
A State Department spokesman told CNN that Russia has informed the U.S. side that it will be absent from the table and will propose a new date for these consultations at a later date.
In this sense, the said spokesman stressed that Washington is «ready to reschedule as soon as possible» this meeting, as it considers that resuming the consultations is «a priority» in order to continue counting on the START agreement as an «instrument of stability».
From Russia, the Foreign Ministry confirmed the suspension of the meeting, although it did not elaborate on further details.
Washington and Moscow announced in February 2021 the entry into force of the five-year extension of the treaty with the aim of strengthening «the national security of both countries» and ensuring «verifiable limits on intercontinental nuclear weapons».
The START treaty was signed in 1991 by the then leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. In April 2010, the agreement was replaced by the New START treaty, signed by then U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, respectively.
The agreement, which is currently in force due to an extension signed in 2021, expires in 2026. U.S. President Joe Biden has expressed his willingness to negotiate a new arms control framework to replace the current pact with Moscow.
