Telesur said that the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a five-year agreement to the Third Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was due to expire in February.
“This is a mutually beneficial decision in its essence. It is the only correct one. We have a large margin of time to start and conduct in-depth bilateral negotiations on a whole range of issues that affect strategic stability, to ensure reliable security for our country for a long time to come,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
In addition, it is reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, had their first phone call, during which they discussed various issues of bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington, including the extension of START 3.
This treaty was signed ten years ago between then-presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, and envisages mutual monitoring of nuclear arsenals by Washington and Moscow, and was ratified in 2011.
In May 2020, the Donald Trump administration proposed that China be included in the treaty. Russia responded that France and the United Kingdom should be participants in the peace agreement, as they are nuclear powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Russia proposes to include offensive and defensive nuclear weapons and non-nuclear weapons in the strategic agenda, while developing a new security equation for the next five years, RT reported.
For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian welcomed the extension of START 3 and said it would help maintain global strategic stability.
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