India welcomes agreement between US, Russia to extend New START Treaty

India on Thursday welcomed the agreement between the US and Russia to extend the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty) till 2026.

"India welcomes the agreement between the US and Russia to extend the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START Treaty) by five years," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

"We hope that this will promote dialogue and cooperation to help address international non-proliferation and disarmament issues," MEA added.

The new START or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed between Moscow and Washington in 2010 and came into force in 2011. It is a nuclear arms reduction treaty, which replaced the Treaty of Moscow.

It established a new inspection and verification regime, replacing the previous mechsm, along with reducing the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers by half in both the United States and Russia.

( With inputs from ANI )