Agence France-Presse,
MOSCOW: Russia is ready to further reduce its nuclear missile arsenal in line with its national interests if talks go ahead with Washington on a new treaty, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday.
“In the last two-and-a-half years of the previous (US) administration we tried to get a clearer reaction to our numerous proposals to start work on a new treaty to replace the START treaty that expires in December,” Lavrov said on Russian television.
“We are ready to go further along the path of cuts and limits, naturally taking account of Russia's national security interests,” Lavrov said.
“We are ready for talks that would allow the maintenance of limits and reductions in strategic weapons and we are pleased the new administration in Washington is treating this problem as a priority,” he said in the television interview.
The comments came as security chiefs gathered in the German city of Munich for an international security conference this weekend, with Russia represented by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Moscow has long sought talks on replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a landmark Cold War disarmament pact between the United States and the then-Soviet Union which expires at the end of this year.
In January, prior to her confirmation as the new US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton promised to renegotiate quickly START, which was signed in 1991 and led to steep reductions in the American and Russian nuclear arsenals.
The previous US administration had dragged its feet on the matter, prompting discontent in Russia and claims that Washington was not taking Moscow seriously.
