Military

New START Talks Depend on US Abandoning Its 'Hostile Policy' Toward Russia, Russian Envoy Says

VIENNA (Sputnik) - The prerequisites for talking about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) will emerge only if Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Moscow, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik.
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"Our demands are quite modest, clear and absolutely justified. We need the United States to give up its hostile policy toward Russia, and then there will be prerequisites for talking about the New START treaty," Ulyanov said.
Relations between Russia and the United States went downhill after Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine a year ago. In February 2023, Moscow announced the suspension of its participation in the New START, which was signed by Russia and the US in 2010 and envisaged mutual inspections of the strategic nuclear facilities of the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the US had demanded that Russia unconditionally fulfill its obligations under the treaty while acting arbitrarily concerning its own obligations.
Russia is not satisfied with behind-the-scenes consideration of the issue of the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines by the United States to Australia, an open discussion is needed, Mikhail Ulyanov added.
"We advocate that this issue be discussed openly, with the participation of all interested parties, primarily the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors, as has always been the case in the history of the Agency: any innovations in the field of safeguards were tested in an open format during discussions. [AUKUS] is trying to resolve these issues behind the scenes, exclusively with the IAEA Secretariat. We are not satisfied with this option," Ulyanov said.
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He added that Russia and China are actively opposing the behind-the-scenes discussions and called for a competent, professional, and depoliticized consideration of this issue from the perspective of nuclear non-proliferation and IAEA safeguards.
Earlier this month, AUKUS (the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States) announced a multi-phased plan to supply Australia with conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines and technology for their production.
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