The Kremlin demands that the UK and France be included in the nuclear disarmament negotiations
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that discussions on the reduction of strategic nuclear weapons must start between Russia and the United States, but the Arsenals of Great Britain and France will eventually have to negotiate.
Nuclear weapons Russia. Photo: Shutterstock
The statement made on Sunday, September 28, comes in the context of the proposal formulated by Kremlin to Washington to maintain, for a year, the limits on strategic nuclear weapons, provided by the New Start Treaty, if the United States will also proceed, according to Reuters.
The spokesman of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said that President Vladimir Putin's proposal “It sounds pretty good”, But the decision belongs to US President Donald Trump. He expressed his desire to initiate discussions on denuclearization with Russia and China.
“Of course, we must start discussions at the bilateral level. After all, the new start is a bilateral document. But, in the long term, you cannot ignore these arsenals. All the more so as these arsenals are a component of the general problem of European global security and strategic stability,” Peskov told Tass.
Signed in 2010 by the presidents of Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev and entered into force in 2011, New Start was extended in 2021 by another five years. In 2023, Russia suspended its participation, but Moscow announced that it will continue to comply with the limits on nuclear focos.
Russia and the United States have the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. The new start limits the number of strategic nuclear focoa to 1,550 and the number of launch vehicles – missiles, submarines and bombers – at 700 for each side.
France and the United Kingdom, which have never been part of the treaty, have much smaller arsenals, estimated between 250 and 300 nuclear focoa each.
