2023-06-02 00:38:31
The United States announced Thursday that it is ceasing to comply with part of the New START or START III nuclear disarmament treaty in response to Russia’s breach of that agreement, the State Department said in a statement.
The United States announced four “countermeasures” to Russia’s non-compliance that it said are “proportionate and reversible,” comply with the “limits” of the treaty, and are also “completely in accordance with international law”because they seek to induce the country that has left the treaty to return to comply with its obligations.
Washington has informed Moscow of its decision, and in any case remains willing to return to full compliance with the treaty if Russia also agrees to do so.
The first of the countermeasures is that the United States will not send Russia the update of its data on nuclear facilities and forces that it was obliged to do in March, as it had to do in compliance with the treaty that says that both powers must pass on said information twice a year. year, in March and September.
In any case, Washington recalls that, for the sake of “transparency”, on May 15 it already made the data public in accordance with the limits established by the treaty, and He has already exposed a “small portion” of the information that he will now not send to Russia.
On the other hand, as of this very Thursday, the United States will stop sending Russia the notifications to which it was obliged regarding the location of military material such as missiles or shuttles, as required by the treaty, in response to Moscow’s decision to leave to do it.
Washington recalled that most of these notifications were sent so that each party could verify the other party’s compliance.
In any case, the United States reported that it continues to provide Russia with notifications about its intercontinental ballistic missiles and its submarine launchers, as well as the maneuvers it practices, in accordance with the 1988 agreement on Reciprocal Notification of Major Strategic Exercises.
The United States also announced that from now on will not allow inspection activities in its territory and will revoke the visas of the inspectors attached to the treaty and the members of the crews of said inspection, and will deny the visas that are underway.
In the same way, it will revoke the diplomatic permission of the Russian inspection planes linked to the treaty.
In the statement, the State Department recalls that the US was prepared to provide Russia with an inspection on its territory, but Moscow refused to exercise that “right”, the same one that prevented US inspectors from working on its territory,
Finally, the fourth countermeasure will mean that the United States will not provide telemetric information about its shuttles, as it must exchange every year with Russia.
There is a bilateral commission that should determine how much telemetric information the two countries should exchange, but since Russia has refused to allow that commission to reach an agreement, the United States also stops reporting on that side.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 21 the suspension of his country’s compliance with the New START, although he qualified that Russia is not abandoning the pact, but it limits itself to suspending it because of the US and the hostile attitude of Washingtonwhich supports Ukraine with weapons and financing.
The fundamental part of the treaty, signed by the then US and Russian presidents, Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev, is the verification regime that it establishes to ensure that the nuclear weapons limits set by both countries are met.
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