Washington D.C
CNN
—
The Biden administration is blaming Russia for postponing meetings with discuss nuclear weapons deal between the two nations is scheduled to begin in Egypt on Tuesday, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman saying the decision was made “unilaterally” by Russia.
“The United States and the Russian Federation held a meeting of the Bilateral Advisory Committee (BCC) of the New START Treaty in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss the implementation of the New START Treaty on Tuesday, September 10. November 29, The Russian side informed the United States that Russia unilaterally postponed the meeting and announced that it would propose a new date,” the spokesman said.
The spokesperson added that the United States is “ready to reschedule at the earliest possible date because the resumption of inspections is a top priority for maintaining the treaty as a stabilizing instrument.”
Russia did not provide a reason to the US for the postponement of the talks, a senior State Department official told CNN. The official said Moscow had informed the US of its decision in “recent days”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry told Russian state media RIA Novosti that the talks had been postponed, but did not give a reason for the delay.
“The session of the Bilateral Advisory Committee on the Russia-US START Treaty, scheduled earlier in Cairo (November 29 – December 6), will not take place on the scheduled date. The ministry said the event was postponed to a later date.
The date for the rescheduled talks is still unclear.
The New START treaty puts a limit on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the United States and Russia can possess. Under the treaty, Washington and Moscow conduct inspections of each other’s weapons facilities, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inspections have been halted since 2020.
The treaty was last renewed in early 2021 for 5 years.
Earlier this month, Biden administration officials viewed the ongoing New START negotiations as a positive development, especially as they are set to take place in the wake of Moscow’s nuclear weapons attack against Moscow. into Ukraine.
