According to Russia’s U.N. envoy Petr Iliichev, Russia is committed to implementing the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) that it signed with the United States.

The Russian Federation seriously takes the commitments set forth in the U.S.-Russia New START accord, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations Petr Iliichev said on April 4, 2017.

During the session of the U.N. Disarmament Commission, the diplomat stated that Russia aspires to the goal of a nuclear-free world and is taking systematic steps to implement the bilateral treaty. In Mr. Iliichev’s words, the number of Russia’s nuclear armaments was decreasing over three decades already.

At the same time, Mr. Iliichev noted that disarmament progress would be hard to achieve without thorough preparations. In the view of the Russian side, disarmament efforts going forward need to rest on strengthening strategic stability and ensuring indivisible security for all countries.

In Mr. Ilyichev opinion, it should be the international community’s priority to create a climate conducive to nuclear disarmament.

As part of New START, which is effective until 2021, Russia and the U.S. committed to lowering the deployment of nuclear warheads to 1,550. The sides also agreed to decrease the number of bombers and missiles to 700.