US, Russia to start talks on nuke arms control

Foreign ministers from the United States and Russia will begin talks over nuclear arms control but it may not lead to an extension of the START3 nuclear disarmament treaty, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday. Putin did not say when talks would begin. START3 refers to a proposed agreement between the two nuclear powers for which negotiations broke down years ago. Intended as a successor to previous agreements, it would have required them to lower their numbers of deployed nuclear weapons. The two countries are currently covered by the New START treaty signed in 2010, which caps the number of nuclear warheads well below Cold War limits. But it expires in 2021 amid stalled talks.