It would be better if Russia and the US agreed to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by five years and spent more time renegotiating the deal, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane told Sputnik, commenting on the ongoing START talks between Washington and Moscow
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2020) It would be better if Russia and the US agreed to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) by five years and spent more time renegotiating the deal, former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane told Sputnik, commenting on the ongoing START talks between Washington and Moscow.
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US and Russia nearly reached a deal to extend the New START Treaty and freeze the development of new nuclear warheads for one year. The goal of such an agreement would be to buy time to negotiate a future arms control treaty that includes China, wrote the paper. On Tuesday, Moscow expressed its readiness to freeze nuclear warheads alongside the US to extend the treaty by one year, though it had earlier proposed to prolong the deal for five years without any preconditions. The US State Department also said White House officials were ready to meet with their Russian counterparts immediately to finalize an agreement on nuclear arms control.
"Renegotiation really takes time. So I would see a straightforward extension for one year of the treaty as it is right now, as a political agreement, would be acceptable; better would be [to have] a five-year agreement and give more time to negotiate. But for now, have a one-year extension with certain parameters change � I would find very dicey because, to my mind, there is not enough time to negotiate," Kane said.
According to the expert, the one-year time frame to negotiate is not a long period, as it took much longer to negotiate the New START.
"There is a lot of the blame game going on, which I find very unfortunate," Kane added.
The New START � the last arms control agreement between the United States and Russia � is set to expire in February 2021. Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a world without the New START would represent a full-blown threat. The Russian leader suggested extending the bilateral arms deal for at least one year, without any conditions, so that the two sides could discuss all the parameters of the arms control during this period.
US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien called Russia's proposal on extending the treaty for a year "a non-starter." The United States had earlier suggested extending the treaty for one year if Moscow and Washington froze a number of their nuclear warheads for that period.
