Moscow Ready To Offer One-Year Freeze On Nuclear Warheads Number To Extend Deal With

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Moscow Ready To Offer One-Year Freeze On Nuclear Warheads Number To Extend Deal With U.S.
By: RadioFreeEurope & RadioLiberty - 10-20-20
Re: https://www.rferl.org/a/moscow-ready.../30903054.html

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What President Vladimir Putin said is Russia's new nuclear-powered intercontinental cruise missile is test-launched on March 1, 2018.

Russia says it is ready to freeze its total number of nuclear warheads if Washington does the same in order to extend the New START agreement -- their last major arms-control treaty, which is due to expire in February -- by one year to buy time for the two sides to discuss nuclear arms control in greater depth.

The October 20 offer appears to narrow the gap between the two sides over the fate of New START, after Washington last week rejected a Russian offer to unconditionally extend the pact for one year.

White House national-security adviser Robert O'Brien said on October 16 that the previous Russian proposal was a "nonstarter" in the absence of a freeze of nuclear warheads.

"Russia is proposing to extend New START by one year and is ready, together with the United States, to make a political commitment to 'freeze' the number of nuclear warheads held by the parties for this period," the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement.

The statement added that the freeze and one-year extension would be possible if the U.S. side did not make other demands.

New START, signed in 2010, imposes limits on the two countries' strategic nuclear arsenals. Although it is due to expire in February, it can be extended for five years, which Moscow has said it is ready to do without preconditions.

A possible extension of the accord -- even by one year -- would mark a rare bright spot in the strained relationship between the two countries, while failure to extend it would remove the main pillar maintaining the nuclear balance between them.

The White House, which has already withdrawn from other arms-control treaties because it accused Moscow of violating them and felt the agreements benefited Russia more than the United States, has called for China to join Moscow and Washington to find a replacement for New START.

China, which has a small fraction of the nuclear weapons that Russia and the United States possess, has rejected the idea.

Earlier this month Russia and the United States held an 11th-hour round of talks on the treaty in Helsinki, with Washington saying it was willing to extend the New START treaty for some period of time provided the Russians agreed to the freeze, a proposal the Kremlin quickly rejected.

The issue of the New START treaty comes two weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden supports extending New START "to use that as a foundation for new arms-control arrangements." If Biden wins, the treaty will expire just weeks after he is inaugurated.

Biden calls the treaty -- which was negotiated when he was vice president under President Barack Obama -- an "anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia."

On October 13, more than 75 lawmakers across Europe called on the United States to extend New START before its expiration.

The Trump administration has already left the landmark Cold War-era Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, after accusing Russia of violating it.

Washington also unilaterally exited Open Skies, a treaty that permits the United States and Russia to conduct reconnaissance flights over each others territory.

By: Reuters and TASS

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