SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Putin says Russia prepared to drop START treaty
Saint Petersburg, June 6 (AFP) Jun 06, 2019
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia was prepared to drop a nuclear arms control agreement with the US, known as New START, if there was a lack of interest in renewing it.

"If no-one feels like extending the agreement -- New START -- well, we won't do it then," Putin said at an economic forum in Saint Petersburg, referring to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

"We said a hundred times that we are ready (to extend it)," Putin said, lamenting that Washington was "not conducting any talks" on the issue with Moscow.

"There is no formal negotiating process. And in 2021 everything will end."

The treaty was signed by US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Prague in 2010.

The agreement, which caps the number of nuclear warheads well below Cold War limits, is set to expire in two years' time.

Together with another agreement known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, New START is considered a centrepiece of superpower arms control.

Washington and Moscow dropped the INF treaty earlier this year amid mutual recriminations.

Putin said the potential implications of letting the other treaty expire would be huge, suggesting its demise would fuel a nuclear arms race.

"There won't be any instruments limiting an arms race, for example, deploying space-based weapons."

"This means that nuclear weapons will be hanging over every one of us all the time."

At the same time, the president said Russia would not be afraid of shelving the treaty because it was developing a new generation of weapons that will "ensure Russia's security" in the long term.

"When it comes to creating hyper-weapons, we have overtaken our competitors," the Russian president said.

In February, Washington pulled out of the INF treaty, which was signed in 1987, over what it said were Russian violations of the terms.

Russia then followed suit.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Trump-Musk showdown threatens US space plans
Japanese company aborts Moon mission after assumed crash-landing
Renowned Mars expert says Trump-Musk axis risks dooming mission

24/7 Energy News Coverage
'No doubt' Canadian firm will be first to extract deep sea minerals: CEO
Tabletop particle blaster: How tiny nozzles and lasers could replace giant accelerators
Set it and forget it: Autonomous structures can be programmed to jump days in advance

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Iran FM warns Europe against 'strategic mistake' at IAEA; Iran obtained 'sensitive' Israeli intel
DOD is investigating Hegseth's staffers over Houthi-strikes chats
Three dead as Ukraine hit with third-straight day of overnight attacks

24/7 News Coverage
Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention
Money, mining and marine parks: The big issues at UN ocean summit
Solar power farms would impact less than 1 percent of Arkansas' ag land



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.