U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein and Edward Markey spoke in favor of the extension of the Treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive arms (start III) with Russia. This is stated in a letter sent to the White house, and the bill, which policy has made to the Congress. Documents reviewed RT.
In a letter to the President of the United States Donald Trump, Senator Feinstein noted that start-III would provide more predictability of situation development in this area, while Washington deals with the replacement of obsolete nuclear weapons.
“the Extension of the Treaty will limit the number of Russian strategic forces until at least 2026. This will help to increase the predictability and transparency at the time, as we are engaged in the replacement of our aging nuclear weapons”, — said the Senator.
According to her, extending the agreement, the United States will continue to oversee the observance by Russia of the terms of the contract to unique and valuable data on the number, characteristics, location and activities of Russian strategic forces.
In addition, Feinstein believes that the extension of the start-III will give the time to develop a new agreement, including to connect the process of China and to take measures to limit and reduce the part of nuclear Arsenal, which does not fall under the Treaty, in particular, hypersonic weapons.
For immediate extension of the start-III was also made by Senator Edward Markey. With the support of Feinstein, he introduced in Congress a bill to reduce the nuclear threat to the United States.
“In accordance with American policy the US must immediately agree to extend the new start Treaty for five years, until February 5, 2026, through a bilateral agreement with the Russian Federation. This is necessary in order to continue to have an idea about the location, movement, deployment of strategic delivery systems and warheads belonging to Russia”, — stated in the text of the initiative.
Brand stressed that the extension of the agreement will be “an important step to prepare the ground for multilateral initiatives on arms control”.
In addition, the Senator urged to refrain from conducting new nuclear tests, and to prohibit financing of such tests.
Earlier in the presidential administration, the United States announced its readiness to consider the extension of the start-III “under certain circumstances”.
