WASHINGTON. Dec 23 (Interfax) - Russia urges the United States to use what little time they have left till February 5 to save the New START Treaty for the benefit of both countries and the whole world, the Russian embassy to the U.S. said in a statement on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the treaty's ratification by the U.S. Senate.
"We call the US side to use what little time we have left till February 5 to save New START for the benefit of our two countries and the whole world," the embassy said in a statement posted on Facebook.
"Today, New START is the last bilateral agreement verifiably and transparently limiting world's two largest nuclear arsenals. Since it entered into force on February 5, 2011 the total number of warheads covered by the Treaty has been reduced by one-third, and the number of delivery vehicles by more than half," the embassy said.
New START also "plays an important role in bolstering mutual transparency and predictability," the embassy said.
"As of December 2020, Russian and US teams have carried out 328 on-site inspections, visiting each other's missile, submarine, and bomber bases. The two sides have also exchanged over 21 thousand notifications on the status of their strategic offensive arms," it said.
According to the embassy, "the Treaty is doomed to expire on February 5, 2021. President Vladimir Putin's proposal from December 2019 to extend it for 5 years without preconditions still stands."