Russia States No US Invitation for Disarmament Talks

Russia stated on Friday at a United Nations Conference on Disarmament that it has not seen any official invitation from the United States to engage in new disarmament negotiations following the expiration of the New START treaty, the last existing nuclear arms control agreement. The return of an era of uncontrolled arms race. This week's expiration of the New START, the last active disarmament treaty between Russia and the United States, at a time of great international tensions, jeopardizes nuclear parity and threatens to open a new era of global rearmament. It is of little help that from Pope Leo XIV to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, both parties were called upon to extend the treaty, whose disappearance puts both countries with such arsenals and those aspiring to join the nuclear club on alert, who decided to bury the nuclear war hatchet in the midst of the Cold War in 1972. The only hope is the consultations that, according to Axios reported on Thursday, have begun between Kremlin and White House representatives in Abu Dhabi, where extending the voluntary compliance with offensive arms restrictions imposed by New START for six months was discussed. At this meeting, Russia's ambassador to the UN's European headquarters in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, asked the US representative if he brought with him a formal invitation 'to start negotiations without preconditions.' He added that this could only be considered if 'appropriate conditions' are created for a 'broad dialogue,' in which he also insisted that France and the United Kingdom, two nuclear powers and US allies in NATO, should participate. The world now faces a strategic unknown uncertainty not seen since the days of the USSR and the US. 'Our initiative to maintain the limits for a year, even after the expiration of that document, has not been answered,' said Dmitry Peskov, presidential spokesman, at his daily telephone press briefing today.