Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: People's Republic of China in Russian – People's Republic of China in Russian –
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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the United States will maintain a robust and modernized nuclear deterrent after the expiration of the New START Treaty.
He accused Russia of failing to comply with New START, the last bilateral nuclear arms control agreement between the US and Russia, which expired on Thursday, February 5.
M. Rubio promised that his country would negotiate from a position of strength and maintain a robust and modernized American nuclear deterrent while seeking to reduce global nuclear threats.
"We understand that this process may take time. Negotiations on previous agreements, including New START, took years and were based on decades of experience," the US Secretary of State added, hinting that the strategic vacuum could persist for a long time.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in turn, stated on Friday that Russia and the United States recognize the need to begin negotiations on strategic offensive arms reductions as soon as possible.
As the world's two largest nuclear powers, the United States and Russia together possess approximately 87 percent of the world's nuclear weapons arsenal.
With the expiration of the New START Treaty, the world has entered a period for the first time in more than half a century in which the strategic nuclear forces of Russia and the United States are no longer subject to any mandatory quantitative limitations, inspections, or transparency. –0–
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