Azerbaijan, Baku, May 20 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged by recent announcements by United States and Russia to begin talks to replace a cold war-era nuclear arms control treaty and to work to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world.
Secretary-General said there were a number of initiatives from nuclear and non-nuclear States that together provide a new momentum for disarmament at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva.
"They point the way to move from the divisions and paralysis of the past towards genuine dialogue and progress," said Ban Ki-moon calling not to afford to miss the opportunities.
A new multilateralism where cooperation replaces confrontation, where creativity replaces stalemate.
"Such a fresh multilateral approach is needed in disarmament and non-proliferation more than ever," Ban Ki-moon said and added that it was time to put an end to long standing deadlock in disarmament.
The first official US-Russian negotiations on a new agreement on strategic offensive weapons (START) began in Moscow on Tuesday.
The START-1 treaty, which was signed in 1991, commits Washington and Moscow to reduce a number of nuclear warheads of up to 6,000, and their speakers - up to 1,600 respectively. The term of validity will expire in December.
The decision to launch a dialogue to sign START-2 was made by United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at their first meeting in London on April 2. The Presidents agreed to take maximum efforts, so that to reach a new treaty this year.
According to different estimations, the U.S. has about 1,100 strategic nuclear holders and 2,800 warheads. Russia has about 800 vehicles and approximately 2,500 warheads.
It was expected that the START-2 treaty could become one of the issues on the agenda of discussions within the framework of U.S. President's visit to Russia in early July.
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