The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) welcomes Washington's offer to Moscow to extend the Russian-US treaty on reduction of strategic offensive weapons, known as New START, and voices its support for the deal, a FCDO spokesperson said.
"We welcome the U.S. offer to extend the New START treaty with Russia. The Treaty has made an important contribution to strategic stability, transparency and building trust. We would support the treaty and its robust verification mechanism continuing," TASS cited the spokesperson as saying.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato in turn said the agreement on extending New START is an important step towards nuclear disarmament. "We welcome this. This is an important step towards nuclear disarmament for both countries," Kato said. At the same time, he noted that a broader structure on arms control was needed in order to achieve a nuclear-weapons-free world.
The Russian and U.S. presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden, expressed satisfaction following the exchange of notes on the extension of the New START Treaty, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday after their telephone conversation. According to the Kremlin, "the sides will finalize, within days, procedures needed to ensure further functioning of this major international mechanism of reciprocal limitation of nuclear missile arsenals."
