Billingslea: “We, the United States, intend and believe that the next arms control agreement must cover all nuclear weapons, not just so-called strategic nuclear weapons.” Photo: Reuters/Leonhard FoegerThe United States wants to broaden its main nuclear arms control agreement with Russia to include all their atomic weapons, a US envoy said after talks with Moscow on a new accord. "We, the United States, intend and believe that the next arms control agreement must cover all nuclear weapons, not just so-called strategic nuclear weapons," he said. AgreementNew START caps the countries' deployed strategic nuclear weapons warheads at 1,550 each, far fewer than the thousands of atomic weapons they possess. A more comprehensive agreement would be intended to overcome such disputes and avoid further erosion of global arms control architecture. China, whose nuclear arsenal is a fraction the size of the United States' or Russia's, has rejected American attempts to involve them in the negotiations.

Source: Irish Independent June 24, 2020 01:52 UTC