US So Far Failed To Raise Russia's New Weapons In START Treaty Forum - Official

Faizan Hashmi Published September 18, 2018 | 10:11 PM

The United States has not yet raised the subject of Russia's new strategic weapons announced by President Vladimir Putin in any formal negotiations with Moscow or requested further information on them, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2018) The United States has not yet raised the subject of Russia's new strategic weapons announced by President Vladimir Putin in any formal negotiations with Moscow or requested further information on them, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

"I have not done so... The only way we've seen that has been in the open press," Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson told a hearing of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "We have not had the engagement on New START [New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] with my counterpart on the Russia side.

On March 1, Putin announced a series of new Russian weapons systems as an asymmetric response to US missile defenses and the deployment of NATO forces on Russia's borders.

However, Thompson said the US government was taking its own measures to independently verify the new Russian weapons.

"What he [Putin] says is not necessarily ground truth... We still have some intelligence to gather on that... We've taken action in our own community not through the formal process... We're working with our agencies and allies to confirm [the new weapons]," Thompson said.

The US government, Thompson acknowledged, had not raised the subject of the new Russian weapons in any New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) discussions or asked whether any of the new weapons systems were allegedly in violation of the treaty.

"We've looked at it internally. We haven't taken it to our [Russian diplomatic] counterparts," Thompson said.

Any US decision on extending the New START Treaty would depend on whether it covered Russia's recently announced strategic nuclear weapons, Thompson added.