US-Russia Begin Talks on Long-Range Nuclear Weapons Control

Marshall Billingsley, U.S. Special Envoy for Arms Control.
Photo by AFP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The United States and Russia have resumed the second deputy-level talks to extend the long-range nuclear weapons control agreement, the "New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START)."

The dpa news agency reported that the U.S. and Russia resumed the second deputy-level talks on long-range nuclear weapons control on the 17th (local time).

The talks, held over two days in Vienna, Austria, are attended by Marshall Billingslea, the U.S. Special Representative for Arms Control, and Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, who are scheduled to discuss the extension of New START.

New START is an agreement established to succeed the "Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START)" signed in 1991, which expired in 2009. Through this agreement, the U.S. and Russia agreed to reduce all delivery vehicles and nuclear warheads to 700 and 1,550 respectively by February 5 of next year.

The U.S. announced in 2017 that it had reduced its nuclear warhead stockpile to 1,393, and Russia also declared in 2018 that it had reduced deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,444.

Sergey Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia
[Photo by AFP Yonhap News]

Before the talks, Deputy Minister Ryabkov said in an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency the day before that "there are significant differences (between the two sides)," but added that the U.S. attitude was positive. The U.S. and Russia held the first deputy-level talks in Vienna last June but failed to reach a conclusion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.