Marshall Billingsley, who in April took the post of envoy of the President of the United States in the negotiations on arms control, intends to soon meet with Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Ryabkov.
He will discuss a new U.S. proposal on a Treaty on the limitation of nuclear arms, to which it is proposed to include China, reported The Wall Street Journal.
the Treaty will replace the Treaty on strategic offensive arms, which in 2010 signed by the then presidents of Russia and the USA Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. Agreement start-III, entered into force on 5 February 2011,, is for 10 years, by mutual agreement may be extended for another 5 years. It provides for the reduction of nuclear warheads to 1,550, Intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missile submarines, and heavy bombers to 700 units.
Billingsley and Ryabkov finish the work on the agenda of its meetings, which take place in Vienna. “We agreed as soon as possible, given the situation with the virus COVID, to meet to start negotiations”, — said the WSJ, a senior administration official Donald trump.
In Washington want the new contract was more extensive than start-III, and included three parties — the US, China and Russia. According to us officials, this is necessary because the White house predict the growth of China’s nuclear Arsenal and Russia.
China’s Nuclear Arsenal is much smaller than the other two countries, and Beijing has repeatedly said it will not participate in trilateral agreements. However, according to American officials, Billingsley said the Russian representatives that they should help to bring the Chinese to the negotiating table, writes the WSJ. The United States also plan to use diplomatic leverage (and, perhaps, economic hinted to one official) to encourage Beijing to debate.
“I won’t say that it will be easy. This is something new — a trilateral agreement on nuclear arms control,” said a senior administration official trump.
Washington also want the new Treaty should include all nuclear warheads, including those that are stored and installed on the short-range missiles. To monitor compliance with such a Treaty will be much more difficult than limiting the number of Intercontinental missiles and missiles on submarines and bombers, the WSJ notes.
