The latest round of Russia-US talks on renewing a key nuclear arms reduction treaty will enter into a second week, a Russian diplomat said, a day after the UN Security Council vowed to rid the planet of all nuclear arms. "They will go on until next week, until Friday," the diplomat told AFP, adding that there were no further details at the moment.
Previous rounds of talks on the renewal of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) which expires on December 5 had lasted a maximum three to four days. But a Russian diplomat had said at the start of talks on Monday that this round would "last longer than expected with the large delegations from each side."
The United States and Russia had agreed this year to seek the replacement or renewal of START, marking the first tangible step in the thaw in US-Russian relations heralded by the Obama administration. START, signed in 1991 just before the break-up of the Soviet Union, bound both sides to deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals.