A meeting between US and Russian officials to discuss the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two powers, the New START, has been postponed, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
The talks were scheduled to be held in Cairo, Egypt, from November 29 to December 6. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not give a reason for the delay and just said the meeting has been “postponed to a later date.”
The Biden administration is blaming Russia for the delay, with a State Department spokesperson saying the decision was made “unilaterally” by Moscow. “The Russian side informed the United States that Russia has unilaterally postponed the meeting and stated that it would propose new dates,” the spokesperson said.
The New START treaty limits the deployment of missiles, warheads, and bombers and includes an inspection regime. But the inspections have been suspended since March 2020 due to Covid-19, and the negotiations were expected to focus on resuming them.
The talks would have been held under the bilateral consultative commission (BCC), an implementation body established by the New START.
The New START is due to expire in 2026, and there’s currently no plan for a replacement for the treaty. The US and Russia were engaged in broader arms control talks before Russia invaded Ukraine, but they were suspended by the Biden administration.
Russia seems to be behaving like a bit of a twit. I use to hold them in a higher regard. Makes me wonder what else Russia might have in mind?… Invading someone else?… Who knows?….
There’s still three years to go on New START, so it’s not like delaying the meetings is some kind of hair trigger problem.
Presumably the Russians had reasons for thinking that now is not the best time for the negotiations. It could be that they expect the Ukraine conflict to look something like “resolved” fairly soon and want that to not be looming quite as large over the negotiations.
Thank you for the clarity TK.
“Ukraine conflict to look something like “resolved” fairly soon” Not sure how it would resolved itself fairly soon to Russia likely. But time will tell.
I do have a question for you Tom, why does the antiwar.com still have a “banner button” on US casualties for the second Iraq war? That was very useful in the past, but is it not time to replaced it? Perhaps with a listing of US/ NATO weapons sent to Ukraine.
I don’t know, why that is (the US Iraq casualties button), but I’ll pass your suggestion along.
As for resolution of the Ukraine conflict, I’m still of the opinion that the Russians are going to attempt to secure LPR/DPR and a land corridor connecting them to Crimea, then announce a unilateral ceasefire along that line of control and pretty much dare the Ukrainian regime to tell its citizens they have to keep fighting.
The other possibility is that they expect to put up a king-hell winter offensive that retakes Kherson, goes for Odessa, etc., and leaves them in a formidable position to impose terms. I think that’s less likely to happen, but it could be their goal/expectation.
It just seems to me that the most obvious reason they would want to wait on the New START negotiations is to try to get themselves in a better position for that Ukraine to not be as big an elephant in the room.
Tom you might be right about Russian’s plan. The old Mike Tyson quote comes to mind: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” So we will see what happens.
Winter offensives have often been used successfully by Russia and the Soviet Union. However, usually against foreigners. Ukrainians are hardly foreigners. They ought to know about winter warfare. One issue is: do they have enough winter-weaponry, both offensive and defensive?
Well said and likely. I can’t imagine why people who have literally opted out of several treaties would get their panties in a bunch over a postponement.
Now is not the time for negotiations because we will not negotiate in good faith.
Nope. The entire mission in Ukraine, in my estimation, is a message to the West to just stop it. Russia gets it that we do not want them to be a part of the family of nations. We want them to be THE boogeyman (for now) to jack up the profits for the MIC. Peace means lower profits. War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler is a short read, but to the point, and just as relevant today as it was when he wrote the book.
Well that is an expensive message. Tens of thousand of dead Russians, massive amount of equipment destroyed and the permanent loss of Europe as natural gas customer.
Blah blah blah.
Both sides are free to build up intermediate range weapons since the demise of the INF Treaty, and there were no restrictions on short range weapons. Arms races tend to end unhappily.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
It may be Russia has come to think of the USA as derisively as Clinton on Russia, “A financial institution with nukes.”
I know that thinking aware people know whom is responsible for this violence and destruction. It has not happened here since 911.I predict that if the ruling class can not or will not change its ways it could happen again.
“The US and Russia were engaged in broader arms control talks before Russia invaded Ukraine,” That was funny, right there. We left the ABM Treaty, Open Skies, INf Treaty.
Well, those don’t count because the Hegemon did that.