RF-US Consultative Commission for new START to meet in Geneva

GENEVA, March 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The experts from Russia and the United
States will discuss the current issues related to the fulfillment of the
new START treaty at a first meeting of the Bilateral Consultative
Commission here on Monday, the Russian Permanent Office at the UN branch
and other international organizations in Geneva told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
"The Bilateral Consultative Commission is a body to fulfill the new
START treaty that was formed under the treaty. Under the START treaty the
commission should have at least two annual sessions, if the countries
reached no other agreement," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a
statement made ahead of the commission meeting. "The new START treaty
entered into force on February 5, 2011 and is being fulfilled," the
statement runs.
Since March 22 the countries officially have started exchanging the
reports on their strategic forces. Meanwhile, the U.S. have recently made
a demonstration flight of its bomber B-1 at the Davis-Monthan Air Force
Base (Arizona) as part of preparations to regular inspections under the
new START treaty. Russia has made the similar demonstration of its
intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24. Regular inspections will begin
after April 6.
The U.S. considers the new START treaty as the groundwork for further
reduction of the nuclear stocks of the countries, U.S. Assistant Secretary
of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose
Gottemoeller stated. She singled our three types of weapons which should
be included in future agreements. These weapons are deployed weapon
systems, non-deployed backup weapon systems and tactical nuclear weapons.
The first session of the Russian-U.S. Consultative Commission will
last until April 8.