New Delhi (EFE).- The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, asked his Russian counterpart, Seguéi Lavrov, on Thursday to sign the “New START” treaty, the only one to reduce nuclear weapons between the two countries that Vladimir Putin broke last month.
US media such as The Washington Post offered details of the meeting between Blinken and his counterpart, who had a brief conversation on the sidelines of the G20 ministerial meeting in New Delhi, the first face-to-face between them since the war in Ukraine began.
Citing a senior State Department official as a source, the newspaper detailed that Blinken pointed out three points to Lavrov: the signing of the aforementioned treaty; that the United States will continue to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia “for as long as it takes”; and that Russia should release Paul Whelan, an imprisoned US citizen.
It was Blinken who requested the meeting, something that suggests, according to the newspaper, that the Joe Biden administration wants to keep the lines of communication open with Russia despite its unconditional support for Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zajárova told the press that Blinken requested to contact Lavrov “on the fly, within the framework of the second session of the G20” and specified that “it is not a negotiation or a meeting.” Lavrov, who arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, held talks with his counterparts from China, Brazil, India and Turkey.
Lavrov and Blinken had not had any personal meetings since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
In August last year both diplomats met at a ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, but did not hold any conversation. Later, Lavrov assured that he did not see that Blinken wanted to talk.
Blinken pointed out this Wednesday for his part in Uzbekistan, before traveling to India, that he did not plan to meet with Lavrov in the G20 (the group of the main rich and developing economies in the world) and that he would not meet with his Chinese counterpart, either. Qing Gang.
“There are no plans to see them at the G20, although I suspect we will surely be together in group sessions of one kind or another,” Blinken said in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, from where he traveled to New Delhi.
The New START treaty was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010 by the then US president, Barack Obama, and Russia, Dmitri Medvedev.
The treaty limited the number of strategic nuclear weapons, with a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 ballistic systems for each of the two powers, on land, sea or air.
During the last state of the nation address on February 21, Putin announced in his message that Russia was forced to freeze its participation in the treaty due to Western policy.
