The Russian Federation and the United States are preparing to hold a face-to-face meeting of delegations to discuss the resumption of inspections under the START-3 treaty – now the time and place for negotiations are being specified. Informed sources from the Russian side told Izvestia about this.
The main topic of the negotiations will be the resumption of inspections – for this, the United States must remove the sanctions obstacles.
“Russia has put forward three conditions for the resumption of verifications (under START-3): it is necessary that the United States give visas to Russian pilots, provide guarantees for aircraft flying over its territory, according to the text of the agreement, and provide the requested data. The United States is pushing more on the need to negotiate on this issue, since they need it more than we do, ”said one source.
Under START III, the Russian Federation and the United States can conduct up to 18 inspections of strategic nuclear weapons sites annually to make sure that the other side complies with the treaty’s limitations. However, inspections have not been carried out for two years already: in March 2020, the Russian Federation and the United States agreed to stop verification of each other’s strategic nuclear weapons facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On August 8, Russia notified the United States that it was temporarily withdrawing its facilities from inspection activities under START, because, as Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov clarified, the Americans do not issue visas to Russian pilots and purely technically block inspections.
“The START verification mechanism cannot function unilaterally,” the ambassador explained the suspension of inspections.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry previously reported that “there are no such obstacles for the arrival of American inspectors in Russia.”
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Rocket science: Russia and the United States are preparing a face-to-face meeting on START-3
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