MOSCOW. Aug 24 (Interfax) - If New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) expires without an agreement reached to extend it, Russia is willing to hold the arms control talks with the United States "from scratch," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
After the New START Treaty expires in February 2021, and if the two countries could not agree on its extension, "we will lose the last tool, which could even somehow regulate the situation in the field of nuclear weapons," he said at the Territory of Meanings forum on Sunday.
"This does not mean that everything will collapse, as we are absolutely sure that we are capable of protecting ourselves. There is no concern here. We will be ready to resume talks already with a clean slate, from scratch. However, this will be a very big mistake," the minister said.