Lavrov: Russia is ready to work on new treaties on nuclear weapons

Moscow-Sana

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed his country's readiness to cooperate with the United States of America to work on new treaties on nuclear weapons reduction.

And Russia's website today quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Lavrov mentioned his American counterpart Mike Pompeo during a phone call today to "the Russian proposal to extend the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons that expires in February 2021," stressing "Russia's readiness to work on possible new treaties on nuclear weapons".

Lavrov pointed out the importance of preserving during the period of preparation of these agreements the Strategic Offensive Arms Control Treaty as a cornerstone of global security.

The two sides agreed, according to the statement, to "revitalize the Russian-American dialogue on arms control and non-proliferation, and Lavrov stressed the need to arrange it, taking into consideration all factors that affect strategic stability."

Lavrov had announced earlier that Russia is ready for dialogue with Washington on new developments and hypersonic weapons in the context of discussions of strategic stability.

After Washington withdrew on August 2, 2019 from the medium and short-range missile disarmament treaty, the third version of the Strategic Offensive Weapons Treaty, which was concluded between Russia and the United States in 2010, to extend the agreement signed in 1991 in Moscow became the only working deal between the two parties on arms reduction.