Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged the US to take up its proposal for a one-year extension of the key nuclear arms control treaty set to expire on February 5.

The New START agreement, signed in 2010, caps deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550 and restricts the number of nuclear-capable missiles and their launchers, as well as heavy bombers.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a one-year extension of the treaty, citing the need to avoid an arms race and further escalation. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Lavrov said the offer remains on the table.

“Let’s take a year to ‘cool down,’ if you will, and consider the responsibility of great powers for global security and stability, especially in preventing a nuclear war. We are ready,” Lavrov said.

“The extensions of the numerical limits could be announced at any moment before February 5. By the way, when New START was extended shortly after US President Joe Biden assumed office (in 2021), it was done just a few days before its expiration date,” Lavrov added. The Russian Defense Ministry said last month that it had not received a substantive response on the matter from Washington.

On October 30, US President Donald Trump instructed the government to carry out nuclear weapons tests “on an equal basis” with Russia and China. Energy Secretary Chris Wright later explained that the planned tests would not include actual nuclear explosions, which the US stopped conducting in 1992.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reaffirmed last week that Moscow would not lift its own moratorium on nuclear tests unless the US does so first.

Both the US and Russia have test-fired unarmed, nuclear-capable missiles in recent months. The US launched a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, while Russia fired its new nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile last month.

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