GENEVA, Monday, the 58th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council was officially opened, with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Vershinin, giving an interview to the RIA Novosti news agency on the sidelines of the meeting. According to the diplomat, Moscow is open to the resumption of dialogue on multilateral agreements on nuclear disarmament and arms control, such as START-III (also known as New START).
Vershinin stated, “I would like to say that, at this moment, the high-level segment of the disarmament conference is commencing, at which we will participate and express our key positions and approaches.”
“We, of course, are in favor of the resumption of such strategic agreements. However, this requires very careful and thorough work. And the most important thing: a constructive attitude from the partners, based on the understanding that the interests of each other must be respected in order to ensure strategic stability” he added.
The United States, the Soviet Union and later Russia have signed several treaties on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons, including START I (1991, expired in 2009), START II (1993, not in force) and START III (the last, signed in 2010 and due to expire in February 2026). In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the latter agreement.
So far, Moscow and Washington have not considered a new dialogue on strategic weapons. Earlier in February, the permanent representative of Russia to the United Nations in Geneva told RIA Novosti that the US was not willing to resume serious talks on nuclear disarmament.
US President Donald Trump recently announced plans to hold a trilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, focusing on the halving of the military budgets of the three countries.
Putin recently stated that Russia and the US could agree to a 50% reduction in defense spending and China could also join the agreement.