24.01.2025, 13h46
The Kremlin on Friday called on the United States to begin nuclear disarmament negotiations “as quickly as possible”, a few days after Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“We have an interest in launching the negotiation process as quickly as possible,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov told the press, estimating that “the ball is in the court of the Americans who have suspended all substantial contacts” on this subject with Moscow. “It is in the interest of the whole world,” he added.
According to Mr. Peskov, “we cannot,” however, conduct negotiations “without taking into account the nuclear potential of France or the United Kingdom.”
However, he does not cite the arsenal of China, an atomic power allied with Russia, while American President Donald Trump judges that Beijing must participate.
“Current realities dictate this necessity, which is why we have something to talk about and we must do it,” insisted the spokesperson for the Russian presidency.
Russia and the United States withdrawn from the Treaty in 2019
Russia and the United States withdrew in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), signed during the USSR and which concerned nuclear weapons with a range of 500 to 5,500 km.
-Each accused the other of no longer respecting its provisions. Moscow had, however, announced that it would not restart production of this type of missile as long as the United States did not deploy them abroad.
Russia also suspended its participation in the New Start non-proliferation agreement in February 2023, the last bilateral agreement of its kind linking Moscow and Washington, the two former Cold War rivals. Signed in 2010, this treaty expires in 2026.
The New Start agreement limits the arsenals of the two nuclear powers to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads each, a reduction of almost 30% compared to the previous limit set in 2002. It also limits the number of launchers and bombers heavy at 800.
Negotiations to renew the treaty were deadlocked throughout the first term of Donald Trump, who wanted to see China included in arsenal restrictions.
“We would like to see denuclearization,” Mr. Trump said Thursday, during an online speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reiterating his desire for three-way negotiations between Russia, the States -United States and China.
