Russia and the United States have agreed to hold a bilateral meeting on the New START treaty implementation in the near future, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said on Tuesday.
"We have agreed that the BCC [New START Treaty’s Bilateral Consultative Commission] will meet in the near future under the terms of the New START Treaty," he said. "That’s the bilateral mechanism for discussing treaty implementation issues under the New START Treaty."
"The work of the BCC is confidential, but we do hope for a constructive session," the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson did not elaborate on the date and potential venue of the talks, and declined to comment on whether it would indeed take place in Egypt’s capital Cairo as was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
At the same time, he pointed out that the issues of Ukrainian crisis settlement will not be raised at the talks.
"Of course, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine is a cardinal principle that applies to Russia’s war in Ukraine," Price added.
The US diplomat confirmed that the upcoming talks would focus on resumption of inspections under the New START treaty.
The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (the New START Treaty) was signed in 2010 and entered into force on February 5, 2011.
