The meeting of the bilateral commission between Russia and the United States on the START or START III Treaty that was to be held starting this Tuesday in Cairo has been postponed. This was announced today by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"The session of the bilateral consultation commission previously planned from November 29 to December 6 in Cairo on the Russian-American START Treaty will not be held on these dates," Russian diplomacy said, without referring to the causes.
Foreign Affairs has indicated that "the meeting is postponed for later", by also reserving the possible new date of the consultations.
The meeting had been announced by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov after Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Narishkin and CIA Director William Burns discussed in Ankara the growing nuclear risk and the international tensions derived from the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
The US suspended the dialogue on arms control after Russia's war intervention in Ukraine.
Russia, in turn, informed Washington in August of its decision to ban US on-site inspections of its nuclear weapons arsenal, citing difficulties in doing the same in the US due to Western sanctions on overflight permits and the granting of visas. to Russian officials.
In February 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, extended the last nuclear disarmament treaty between the two powers, which had been signed in 2010, for five years.
The New START, which specifically includes an arsenal inspection system, was to reduce the number of nuclear warheads by 30%, to 1,550 per country.
In addition, it limited to 700 the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles, those deployed in submarines and strategic bombers equipped for nuclear weapons.
It also reduced to 800 the number of intercontinental missile launchers, submarine ballistic missile launchers and nuclear-equipped strategic bombers, whether deployed or not.
