This Tuesday (11), in a speech in the Russian parliament, Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov stated that the country will respect the limits of its nuclear arsenal, as long as the United States carries out the same act.
“Our position is that this moratorium on our side, which was declared by the president, is still in force, but only as long as the United States does not exceed said limits” said the minister.
The speech comes amid the termination of the New Start agreement, which expired on February 5th, which was responsible for limiting the number of nuclear warheads and determined supervision between the United States and Russia.
According to Lavrov, Moscow will adopt a more cautious stance towards the agreement, based on an “analysis of American military policy.”
Russia is the country with the largest number of nuclear warheads in the world, with around 5,459 deployed. The USA occupies second place, containing 5,177 warheads.
The New Start, signed in 2010, established that each country could maintain a maximum of 1,550 active strategic nuclear warheads, representing a decrease of around 30% compared to the limit in force before the agreement.
For US President Donald Trump, the “new treaty needs to be improved and modernized”. Furthermore, he said that former US President Barack Obama, New Start was “poorly negotiated”.
