New START Talks Depend On US Abandoning Its 'Hostile Policy' Toward Russia - Russian Envoy

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2023) The prerequisites for talking about the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) will emerge only if Washington abandons its hostile policy toward Moscow, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told Sputnik.

"Our demands are quite modest, clear and absolutely justified. We need the United States to give up its hostile policy toward Russia, and then there will be prerequisites for talking about the New START treaty," Ulyanov said.

Relations between Russia and the United States went downhill after Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine a year ago. In February 2023, Moscow announced the suspension of its participation in the New START, which was signed by Russia and the US in 2010 and envisaged mutual inspections of the strategic nuclear facilities of the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the US had demanded that Russia unconditionally fulfill its obligations under the treaty while acting arbitrarily concerning its own obligations.