US Proposed Nuclear Arms Cuts to Exclude NATO Reductions - Russian Envoy

© AFP 2023 / WAKIL KOHSARUS army and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers walk as a NATO helicopter flies overhead
US army and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers walk as a NATO helicopter flies overhead - Sputnik International
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Washington’s proposal to reduce US and Russian nuclear weapons below the agreed to levels in the 2011 Strategic Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) fails to account for weapons controlled by NATO allies France and the United Kingdom, Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — In 2013, President Barack Obama proposed the United States and Russia reduce their nuclear arsenals by an additional one third of the levels agreed to in New START.

US officials have repeatedly publicized the offer, alleging Russia's unwillingness to engage in further nuclear disarmament talks.

"If you combine the British [nuclear] forces and the French forces, they together compose the same one-third of what you [the United States] are aiming to remove from our side," Kislyak said at an annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit.

Georgian servicemen stand at the opening of a joint NATO-Georgia training center outside Tbilisi, Georgia, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015 - Sputnik International
NATO Actions Eroding Predictability, Stability for Russia - Envoy to US

Kislyak noted that the force composition "creates significant questions" for Moscow, as do recent US B-52 bomber training missions for NATO pilots from non-nuclear weapons states.

Between France and the United Kingdom, NATO has 525 nuclear warheads, which is approximately 33 percent of the 1,550 total deployed nuclear warheads Russia and the United States agreed to under New START.

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