Weapons destruction Moscow and Washington could sign a new agreement

Russia and the United States could sign a new cooperation agreement for the destruction of weapons decommissioned, reported Monday the Russian daily Kommersant, citing a source in the Russian delegation to the Conference on Security in Munich.

The new agreement would replace the current Nunn-Lugar program, in effect since 1991, under which the United States helps other countries to destroy their nuclear and chemical weapons decommissioned.

In 2012, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the U.S. initiatives to further implement the Nunn-Lugar program, which comes to an end in June 2013, "no longer fit" the requirements of Moscow.The United States is then declared ready to negotiate on this issue.

According to the source, Russia sign the new agreement "provided it is based on the principle of equality" and "respond to the realities of modern life." For example, the speaker of the newspaper quoted the Russian-American agreement on the destruction of plutonium, signed in 2002 and renewed in 2010, which divides responsibilities between the two signatory countries equally.

As part of a new agreement, Moscow also wants to limit American access to certain sites, the newspaper said. The details of the future document will be discussed at the next visit of the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense in Moscow Rose Gottemoeller scheduled in February.