Moscow-Sana
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Russian and American experts have begun actual work regarding a possible extension of the New START Treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons.
"I can say that the experts are working on the matter ... the actual work has begun," Zakharova said in an interview with Russia 24 TV.
The Russian National Security Council said that its Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan discussed during a phone call the extension of the New START Treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons.
White House spokeswoman Jane Saki said earlier that the US administration supports the idea of extending the New START treaty for five years. In response to the US statements, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last Friday that "the outcome depends on the details of that initiative."
The START III Treaty, signed by former Russian and American presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama on April 8, 2010 in Prague, remains the only treaty in force between Russia and the United States on arms control, and it expires on the fifth of next February.
The treaty limits the strategic nuclear warheads deployed by each of the two countries to no more than 1,550 each.
