Iran Press/ Europe: In high-level discussions in Geneva, senior US and Russian diplomats signed off on setting up two working groups to pursue potential accords related to nuclear weapons and other global threats: the Working Group on Principles and Objectives for Future Arms Control and the Working Group on Capabilities and Actions with Strategic Effects.
A senior US official described the second meeting of the U.S.-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue since President Joe Biden took office as having been "intensive and substantive" and "detailed and dynamic" but offered no specifics. A joint statement from the two sides said the talks were part of an "integrated, deliberate, and robust process."
The two sides were represented by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.
The US official said, though, that Thursday's talks focused on the larger picture, particularly arms control since the Trump administration withdrew from two treaties with Russia and had been prepared to allow a third, New START, to lapse before Biden took office and decided to extend it.
A key hurdle in the talks has been Russia's demand that the U.S. stop resisting limits on its missile defenses, which the Russians view as a long-term threat and the Americans see as a deterrent to war. At the same time, the US has since the Trump administration been demanding that China be included in any future arms control agreements. China has rejected the calls.
For their part, the Russians have long insisted there can be no strategic stability without limits on defensive as well as offensive weapons. Russia has left no doubt that it will insist that missile defense be part of a future arms control arrangement.
During Donald Trump's presidency, the United States pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and Open Skies Treaty. 219
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