“The United States calls on Russia to meet its legal obligations by rejoining the New Start agreement,” reads a statement from the State Department released Monday evening.
The United States unveiled the figures for its strategic nuclear deterrent arsenal on Monday evening, saying it wanted to respect the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty and calling on Russia, which has suspended its participation, to do the same.
As of March 1, the United States had deployed a total of 662 intercontinental ballistic missiles (a figure including missiles aboard submarines and bombers), equipped with 1,419 nuclear warheads and 800 launchers, according to a statement from the State Department.
“The United States calls on Russia to meet its legal obligations by rejoining the New Start agreement and the stabilization, transparency, and verification measures contained therein,” the statement added.
A measure of transparency
Russia suspended its participation in the New Start treaty in February, in retaliation for Western aid in the war in Ukraine. This decision was denounced in unison by the Western powers.
Signed in 2010, the New Start treaty is the last bilateral nuclear disarmament agreement between Russians and Americans. Moscow had already announced in early August suspending planned inspections of its military sites.
The New Start agreement limits the arsenals of the two nuclear powers to a maximum of 1,550 deployed strategic offensive warheads each, a reduction of almost 30% compared to the previous limit set in 2002. It also limits the number of launchers and bombers heavy at 800.
The New Start treaty provides in particular for checks on both sides of the arsenals, which had been suspended by the Covid-19 epidemic. The administration of US President Joe Biden had tried to revive them, in vain.
