(MENAFN- AzerNews) By Kamila Aliyeva
The challenging situation in the world hinders the implementation ofthe Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START III or New START).
The United States is committed to its obligations under theNew START, but considers that the current international situation does not allow negotiations on further steps in the field of nuclear disarmament.
This was stated by Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Anita Friedt at the first Committee debate of the UN General Assembly on October 3, the UN press service reported.
American side has made many steps to reduce nuclear weapons, doing so in a way that maintains strategic stability, Friedt noted.
'The total nuclear stockpile was down 87percent since its cold war peak and it expected to meet the central limits of the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty) when they took effect in February2018.While those actions made clear the United States' commitment to ArticleVI of the Treaty on the Non‑Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the current security environment was challenging, she said.
Pointing to several challenges, she said the single greatest security threat was the North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Supporting a diplomatic solution to the crisis, the United States did not seek a 'regime change or 'an excuse to send its military north of the Korean demilitarized zone, according to the U.S. diplomat.
Friedt, in her speech, also called the situation in Syria to be another challenge for the New START implementation.
The Bashar Al‑Assad regime must fully declare its chemical weapons programme and cooperate with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons ‑ United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism, she said while commenting on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The State Department has previously released a certificate on compliance by the two countries with their obligations under the New STARTTreaty.
Russia declared 1,561 deployed warheads, 501 deployed launchers, and 790 total launchers as of September 1, 2017. In March 2017 the numberswere 1765, 523, and 816 respectively.
The U.S. numbers for September 2017 were 1,393 warheads, 660 deployed and 800 total launchers (1411, 673, and 820 in March 2017).
Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump has called New START, which was signed in 2010, 'one-sided and 'a bad deal, and has even suggested the U.S. might withdraw from it.
Turning to the recently signed at United Nations Headquarters treaty which prohibits nuclear weapons, she said that the U.S. couldn't take such an ‘irresponsible' step.
'It would be irresponsible for the United States to subscribe to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Friedt noted.
The instrument was 'counterproductive and served to reinforce and widen political divisions in existing bodies, while hindering the existing non‑proliferation and disarmament system, according to the diplomat.
This treaty was approved on July 7 at the talks that major nuclear powers (Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and France) skipped. Under the treaty, the parties will be obliged "never under any circumstances to develop, test, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices." Non-nuclear signatory states are prohibited to deploy in their national territories the nuclear weapons of third countries.
The document will come into force 90 days after at least 50 states ratify it. The UK, U.S. and France released a joint statement vowing they would never become party to the treaty. Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow would not ratify the deal as it runs counter to the country's national interests.
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