The US and Russia have decided to resume talks related to the New Start nuclear arms reduction deal, which was put on hold since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The only surviving weapons control pact between the two biggest nuclear powers in the world, the bilateral consultative committee (BCC), the mechanism for its implementation, will meet “in the near future,” Ned Price, spokesperson for the US State Department, said on Tuesday.
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BBC last met in October 2021. The committee is supposed to meet twice a year.
Price said that Washington is hoping for a “constructive session” however, he did not disclose a date or the location for the meeting.
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The restarted negotiations may take place in the Middle East, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant. As per the newspaper, Moscow no longer sees Switzerland, the usual location, as sufficiently neutral, due to the fact that it also placed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.
As per Reuters in August, Russia stopped cooperating with inspections mandated by the pact.
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Moscow blamed travel restrictions put in place by Washington and its allies in response to the invasion of Ukraine in February for this move. Despite this, Russia claimed that it was still committed to observing the provisions of the treaty.
The New Start Treaty, which went into effect in 2011, limits the amount of strategic nuclear warheads that the US and Russia can deploy, as well as the use of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.
(With inputs from agencies)
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