Obama Plans to Offer Russia to Extend START After 2021

Administration of US President Barack Obama is considering to offer Russia to extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, also known as New START, US media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to The Washington Post, with the extension of the New Start treaty, the US leader wants to make sure that the next administration does not interrupt the further reduction of nuclear weapons deployment after he leaves the presidential post.

The media added that Obama's plan on the New Start treaty comes in line with his determination to use the last months of his presidency to fulfill some of the promises on advancing the US nuclear agenda made in his campaign and thus leave the valuable foreign policy legacy.

The treaty with the formal name Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms was signed between Russia and the United States in April 2010 in Prague, and entered into force on February 5, 2011. The Treaty’s duration is ten years — until 2021, unless superseded by a subsequent agreement.

The treaty requires the parties to the contract to reduce and limit the number of deployed and non-deployed strategic offensive arms. It stipulates that the parties may agree to extend the treaty for a period of no more than five years.