World

Russian parliament extends START 3 deal

January 27, 2021
The New START, signed in 2010, was set to expire next week. — courtesy TASS
The New START, signed in 2010, was set to expire next week. — courtesy TASS

MOSCOW — The Russian Duma, the lower house of parliament, unanimously approved Wednesday the extension of the START-3 nuclear agreement with the US.



The whole 399 lawmakers voted in favor of extending the pact in a life session aired by Russian TV.

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Duma to extend START-3 which was due to expire in Feb. 5.

US President Joe Biden called Putin Tuesday and told him Washington would extend the pact for five years.

START-3 was signed in 2010 and entered in force in 2011. It aims at reducing nuclear warheads in Russia and the US to 1,550, as well as lowering stationary and mobile launchers to 700.

Putin said the extension of a key nuclear pact was a positive development in reducing global tensions, as lawmakers unanimously voted to ratify the agreement to prolong New START in a rare moment of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.

"No doubt it is a step in the right direction," Putin said at the World Economic Forum summit being held virtually this year, addressing the body for the first time since 2009.

But the Russian leader warned: "The situation can still develop unpredictably and uncontrollably if we sit on our hands."

The upper house ratified the treaty extension later Wednesday. Putin submitted a bill extending the accord that both houses of parliament quickly ratified.

The New START treaty is the last remaining arms reduction pact between the former Cold War rivals. The Kremlin hailed the extension of the pact for five years.

"This is a good timeframe, which will allow us to work well — if the political will exists — to either further extend it or (agree) a new text of the agreement," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Biden signaled a tough US stance on Russia in his phone call with Putin, raising concerns over human rights and "aggression" against Ukraine.

The US leader also raised a raft of worries about the Russian authorities' treatment of opposition members, including the "poisoning of Alexei Navalny," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

But the agreement to extend the New START pact raised hopes for greater stability between the world's two most heavily armed nations, drawing a line under the uncertainty that entered under Donald Trump, whom Biden replaced last week.

Still, Peskov stressed on Wednesday that major differences between Moscow and Washington remained, indicating that a new reset was out of the question. "Of course so far there are no conditions for a reset," Peskov said.

"It is enough that the presidents yesterday stressed the need to continue dialogue, having noted the existence of rather serious disagreements," he added.

During Trump's tenure, the United States withdrew from major international accords including the Iran nuclear deal and the Open Skies treaty, and it pulled out of a centerpiece arms control agreement with Russia, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. — Agencies

January 27, 2021
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