MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the United States have started working on a new strategic arms reduction treaty, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
The two countries held a regular round of talks on the issue in Geneva on August 31-September 2.
"The sides have started working on specific articles of a future treaty, and agreed that work on them will be carried out as part of working groups. They agreed that talks will be resumed in late September in Geneva," the Russian ministry said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Thursday that a new round of the talks will be held September 21. The September meeting will be the sixth such meeting.
U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed in July in Moscow on the outlines of a deal to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), which expires on December 5.
Nesterenko said then that during the previous meeting, the participants discussed the parameters of the new treaty, formulating wording that presidents Obama and Medvedev could both agree to.
Earlier Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and the U.S. were making headway on work to have a new nuclear arms reduction deal in place by the time the current treaty expires. However, Moscow and Washington have yet to agree on reductions in arms delivery vehicles.
