The Russian-American talks concerning preparations for the Russia-Usa summit in Moscow

The fourth round of the Russian-American negotiations on preparations for the May Russia-USA summit in Moscow concerning accords on subsequent reductions of strategic offensive armaments (START) and the declaration on new strategic relations between the two countries started in Moscow on Tuesday. The Russian delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov, the American delegation - by Senior Under Secretary John Bolton. As the report of the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry says, the sides conducted a constructive and detailed exchange of views with the aim of resolving the remaining non-coordinated issues. The Russian side underscored the importance of achieving such a juridically incumbent agreement which would ensure real and controllable reductions of strategic offensive armaments to the level of 1,700-2,200 strategic nuclear warheads, would reflect the organic connection between strategic defensive and offensive armaments, would increase the predictability of the development of the strategic situation and strategic stability and would rest on the provisions of the START-1 Treaty now in force. It was pointed out, in particular, that the conclusion of a new treaty on strategic offensive armaments would contribute to the fulfilment of the commitments by our countries in the sphere of nuclear disarmament under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. John Bolton was received by Defence Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov. The fourth round of the Russian-American negotiations will end on Wednesday.