U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns will visit Moscow on Wednesday for two days of talks that will include U.S.-Russian efforts to forge a new arms control treaty, the State Department said.
The new pact will succeed the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expired Dec. 5.
“Undersecretary Bill Burns will travel to Moscow this week on the 13th and the 14th to discuss our bilateral relationship to focus on the ongoing bilateral presidential commission work that is being done, but also will talk about arms control, Iran, North Korea and economic cooperation,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley told reporters Monday in Washington, according to a transcript posted on the State Department’s web site.
The two countries had hoped to reach a deal on a replacement to START before the end of the year, but problems persist. In late December, Moscow said it wanted Washington to share detailed data about the sea- and land-based systems that the U.S. plans.
Moscow will restart talks with Washington on the replacement to START this month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
“We hope it will happen somewhere in the second half of January,” Lavrov said in televised remarks.
Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, will fly from Moscow to Madrid for a meeting Friday with European Union leaders, Crowley said.
(MT, AP)