MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The treaty with the formal name Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms was signed between Russia and the United States in April 2010 in Prague, and entered into force on February 5, 2011. The Treaty’s duration is ten years — until 2021, unless superseded by a subsequent agreement. Under the Treaty, the United States and Russia must meet the Treaty’s central limits on strategic arms by February 5, 2018, that is seven years from the date the Treaty entered into force.
The agreement "as a whole is implemented quite successfully" and Moscow "is confident that Russia and the United States will come to the levels which the agreement requests within the set period, that is, by February 2018," Leontyev said.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty treaty requires the parties to the contract to reduce and limit the number of deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive arms. It stipulates that the parties may agree to extend the treaty for a period of no more than five years.
US media cited President Barack Obama’s administration officials in its July 10 report indicating that Obama planned to offer extending the New START Treaty for five years beyond 2021. Obama reportedly wants to make sure the next US administration does not interrupt the further reduction of nuclear weapons deployment. On July 29, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Director of the Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control Mikhail Ulyanov said that Russia was ready to consider extending the New START arms reduction treaty should the United States submit its offer.
