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A deactivated Titan II nuclear ICMB is seen in a silo at the Titan Missile Museum on May 12, 2015 in Green Valley, Arizona.
The U.S. will stop sharing some data that is required to be shared with Russia under the New Start arms control treaty, the State Department said in a statement, in response to what it described as Russia's "ongoing violations" of the agreement.
The data that the U.S. will now withhold includes information on missile and launcher locations, and launches of American submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"The United States is committed to full and mutual implementation of the New START Treaty. Consistent with that commitment, the United States has adopted lawful countermeasures in response to the Russian Federation's ongoing violations of the New START Treaty," the State Department statement said. "The Russian Federation's purported suspension of the New START Treaty is legally invalid."
It added that Washington's countermeasures "are fully consistent with international law" and are "proportionate, reversible, and meet all other legal requirements," and that it notified Russia in advance. The U.S. "remains ready to work constructively with Russia on resuming implementation" of the treaty, it said.
The New Start Treaty, which puts limits on deployed nuclear arsenals, is essentially the last standing arms control agreement between the U.S. and Russia, after others have been dismantled or abandoned by one or both countries in the last several years. Moscow has not formally left the treaty, but in February decided to suspend its participation in it.
— Natasha Turak
Source: CNBC
