Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, stated that the United States was not ready for a dialogue on the Treaty on Measures to Further Reduce and Limit Strategic Offensive Arms (START, unofficially called START-3). He wrote about this on his Twitter.
“Usually, if a proposal does not match your views, you make a counter proposal, of course, if there is a positive political will,” Ulyanov wrote. In his opinion, the hasty negative reaction of officials from NATO, Germany and the United States to Russia's proposal for a missile treaty indicates a reluctance to take care of security through negotiations.
The representative stressed that in most cases, Russia is ready for compromises. As an example, he cited a proposal for a treaty from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On October 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Washington to extend the current START-3 treaty “without any conditions for at least a year, in order to be able to conduct meaningful negotiations on all parameters.” US National Security Assistant Robert O'Brien called the initiative a failure.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed in 2010 by the presidents of Russia and the United States, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. The agreement came into force in 2011 and expires in February 2021.
