NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Russia to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with the US, as reports European Pravda.
Jens Stoltenberg made these remarks at a press conference in Brussels with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission.
Stoltenberg stated, “I regret the decision by Russia to suspend its participation in (the) New START program.”
He recalled that Russia had violated key arms control agreements in recent years.
“More nuclear weapons and less arms control makes the world more dangerous. I’m calling on Russia today to reconsider its decision to suspend its participation in the New START agreement. We have to remember that this is one of the last major arms control agreements we have,” Stoltenberg emphasized.
Earlier, in his address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Putin stated that Russia had suspended its participation in the New START.
Notably, the New START, extended for five years in 2021, remains the only arms control agreement between Russia and the US.
START III, signed in 2010 for ten years, restricts the number of Russia’s strategic and nuclear warheads and the US’s to 700 and 1,550, respectively. The treaty can be extended for an additional five years with the consent of all signatories.
The administration of Donald Trump opposed the extension of the treaty, but President Joe Biden agreed to extend New START.
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