Sunday January 18, 2026

Helsinki hosts U.S.-Russia disarmament talks on Monday

Published : 04 Oct 2020, 22:31

Updated : 04 Oct 2020, 23:10

DF Report

File Photo Xinhua.

The United States and Russia will hold talks on strategic stability and nuclear arms control between the countries in Helsinki on Monday, said the Finnish President’s Office in a press release on late Sunday night.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rjabkov will lead the Russian team while the US delegation will be led by Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingsley.

The latest round of talks on strategic stability and nuclear arms control between the US and Russia started in Vienna in the summer continues on Monday in Helsinki, said the press release.

In the previous round in 2017 deputy foreign ministers of the United States and Russia met in Helsinki.

Welcoming the negotiators again Finland is always ready to offer its good offices for promoting peace and security, said the press release, adding that securing a confidential environment for dialogue, as desired by the parties involved, is an important part of this work.

Like the previous time, President Sauli Niinistö will meet both the negotiators after the talks.

Earlier, in August, the second round of nuclear disarmament talks between the United States and Russia ended without any decisive progress.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea said after the negations that “there are some areas of convergence between Russia and the United States, but we do remain far apart on a number of key issues,” reported the Austrian Press Agency (APA).

The first round of new disarmament talks between the United States and Russia ended in June with no tangible results with the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) scheduled to expire in months, reported Xinhua.

In 2010, Washington and Moscow signed the New START, which stipulates the limits to the numbers of deployed nuclear warheads and strategic delivery systems by both. The New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty in force between the two nuclear superpowers, will expire on 5 February 2021.