WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, said that Moscow has not agreed to the change in disposition method as required by the 2010 agreement.
Ulyanov stressed that, while the agreement does not require both sides to synchronize their actions, the United States having a right to unilaterally choose the disposal method is "far-fetched."
"I don’t think accommodating any kind of new method would necessarily require a renegotiation of the agreement, necessarily, but I’m not going to speculate beyond that," Toner said at a press briefing.
On Friday, US National Security Council Director for Nuclear Threat Reduction Scott Roecker said Washington and Moscow should hold a meeting to resolve potential concerns about the new disposition technology and come to an agreement about the method.
Under the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) agreement, the United States and Russia committed to each dispose of no less than 34 metric tons of excess weapon-grade plutonium. The total amount of material could be enough for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.
