New START
The announcement of the US departure from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty raised concerns about whether a New START extension was possible. On 12 June, Andrea Thompson, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov met for the first time since 2017. These discussions included the importance of negotiating a multilateral treaty, which would include China, France and the UK. Multiple members of Congress penned a letter urging the Trump administration to extend New START, citing its importance to nuclear security and its robust verification regime. Delegations from both the US and Russia met in Geneva in July 2019 to begin discussions on arms control, including how to include China in a future three-way nuclear arms control treaty. On 1 November 2019, Vladimir Leontyev, a Russian foreign ministry official, was quoted as saying he didn't believe there was enough time left for Moscow and Washington to draft a replacement to the New START treaty before it expires in 2021. However, in December 2019, Putin publicly offered the US an immediate extension to the treaty without any modifications and have even given US inspectors the chance to inspect a new hypersonic glide vehicle, Avangard, that would fall under the New START limits.