US and Russia Agree on Nuclear Disarmament Talks

A new round of negotiations should take place in June. China has also been invited to the meeting, US Special Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea reported. The United States and Russia agreed on the time and place of a new round of nuclear disarmament talks and invited China to a meeting. “Today we agreed with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov on time and place for negotiations in June. China is also invited. Will China show and negotiate in good faith? ” US Special Representative for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea wrote on his Twitter microblog on Monday, June 8. Billingsley did not specify where and when exactly should a new round of nuclear arms talks take place. There is no confirmation of the Russian side yet. Recently, Russia has been actively seeking the disarmament negotiations resumption. At the same time, Moscow cautioned against high expectations regarding the recovery of the START-3 treaty on a further reduction in strategic offensive arms, especially against the backdrop of the recent US withdrawal from an "Open Skies" Treaty. Uncontrolled arms race threat In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened the Security Council to discuss the future of both of these treaties. He criticized the United States, as he stated, for the lack of desire to engage in serious negotiations to extend the START-3 treaty, which expires on February 5, 2021. Putin emphasized then that this topic is of great importance not only for the USA and Russia, but also for the whole world. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned at the end of May that after the US presidential election in November it would be too late to negotiate an extension of START-3 and there would be a threat of an uncontrolled nuclear arms race. Nuclear weapons as a deterrent Meanwhile, the German government said it sees no reason for NATO to abandon nuclear weapons as a deterrent. NATO’s strategic concept of 2010 remains valid, the German Foreign Ministry said in response to a request from the German Bundestag deputy from the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) Karsten Klein. “Russia has significantly increased its nuclear arsenal over the past 10 years and today has multiple advantage over NATO in short- and medium-range missiles that can be equipped with nuclear warheads,” dpa quotes an excerpt from a response from the German Foreign Ministry. The statement also notes that the United States broke the medium-range missiles treaty due to Russia's violation of this document, and emphasizes that Germany, in negotiations with Washington and Moscow, as well as in multilateral formats, is betting on improving the framework conditions for further steps in the field of nuclear disarmament.