Rubio Says US To Maintain Credible, Modernised Nuclear Deterrent

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday vowed that the United States would maintain a credible and modernised nuclear deterrent after the expiration of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), reported Xinhua.

He accused Russia of noncompliance with the New START, the last US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty, which expired on Thursday.

Rubio vowed that his country would negotiate from a position of strength and maintain a credible, modernised US nuclear deterrent while seeking to reduce global nuclear threats.

"We understand that this process can take time. Past agreements, including New START, took years to negotiate and were built upon decades of precedent," he added, suggesting a strategic vacuum may last for a long time.

Russia and the United States recognise the need to begin negotiations on the New START as soon as possible, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

As the world's two largest nuclear powers, the United States and Russia together possess about 87 per cent of the global nuclear arsenal.

Following the lapse of New START, for the first time in more than half a century, the world has entered a period in which US-Russian strategic nuclear forces are subject to no binding limits, no inspections and no transparency.  

--BERNAMA-XINHUA