Spanish
The Kremlin today optimistically received the reaction of US President Donald Trump to the proposal of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the future of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III).
"We welcome this statement and believe that this already offers grounds for optimism in the sense that the United States supports this initiative of Putin," responded Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov in his daily telephone press conference.
Putin stated on September 22 that he would be willing to extend START III for another year, which expires on February 5, 2026.
Although he qualified that this measure "will only be viable on the condition that the U.S. acts analogously and does not take steps that undermine or destroy the current equivalence of deterrence potentials."
Putin called a possible definitive renunciation by the U.S. of the treaty a "wrong" and "short-sighted" step from "many points of view", which was signed in April 2010 by the then U.S. President, Barack Obama, and Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev.
Yesterday, Trump responded curtly to reporters gathered at the White House that Putin's proposal seemed like a "good idea" to him.
Putin suspended the application of the treaty, although he did not denounce it, on February 21, 2023, after which Western specialists have not been able to inspect Russian facilities.
The treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons, with a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems for each of the two powers, on land, sea, or air.
In mid-September, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov acknowledged that negotiations to normalize relations with the United States were stalled.
