"For us, the disarmament process is a continuing process, and we must think about what will appear after the treaty expires, because we can't allow this important process to get lost or stop," Sergei Kislyak said.
Russia's foreign minister and the U.S. secretary of state said in a statement earlier Tuesday that Russia and the U.S. have confirmed their intention to reduce their strategic offensive arms to a minimal level and to develop relevant agreements.
"Russia and the United States state again their intention to continue with the reduction of strategic offensive weapons down to the possibly lowest level, which would guarantee national security and alliance obligations," Sergei Lavrov and Condoleezza Rice said in the joint statement, which summarized the results of the summit in Kennebunkport, the U.S.
The START I treaty was signed July 31, 1991, five months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and it expires December 5, 2009. It remains in force, as a treaty between the U.S. and Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have since totally disarmed their strategic arms capabilities, and the U.S. and Russia reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600 units, with no more than 6,000 warheads.
The treaty was followed by START II, which banned the use of multiple re-entry vehicles (MIRV) but never entered into force and was later bypassed by the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions (SORT), signed May 24, 2002 by Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in Moscow.
SORT, which expires December 31, 2012, limits both countries' nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,200 warheads each. The treaty has been largely criticized for its lack of verification provisions and the possibility of re-deploying stored warheads.
