Nuclear weapons

The United States has refused to extend the new START program, which expires on February 5, 2021, and concerns the control of nuclear weapons, TASS reminds.
"It has already begun. This is obvious. Everything began after the US pullout from the ABM treaty", the Russian President explained.
Putin said that Russia "creates an umbrella for itself".

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts has completed a review of long term operational safety at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Romania. The Pre-SALTO (Safety Aspects of Long Term Operation) review mission was requested by the plant's operator, Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica SA.

Russia deployed its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles on Dec. 27, the Defence Ministry said, a move which President Vladimir Putin has boasted puts his country in a class of its own.   

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed Putin of the deployment, according to a ministry statement that did not disclose where the missiles were located. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said nuclear power should either be free for all states or banned completely, and warned that the "inequality" between states who have nuclear power and who do not undermines global balances.

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Ramona Manescu participated on Monday in the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 63rd General Conference in Vienna, context in which she talked about Romania's commitment to contribute to strengthening nuclear security, including through co-chairing the IAEA's International Conference on nuclear security, alongside Panama in February 2020

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Ramona Manescu participates in the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 63rd General Conference in Vienna on Monday. According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE), Manescu will have meetings with IAEA acting Director General, ambassador Cornel Feruta, as well as with representatives of the participating states.

Works being carried out by state institutions and organizations should be concluded rapidly in order to ensure nuclear power plant projects are completed without delay and nuclear technology is used more effectively for peaceful purposes, a new presidential circular has said.

As of today, the United States' decision to withdraw from the nuclear weapons treaty concluded with Russia in the 1987, enters into force.

The nuclear deal deals with medium to low range missiles, and signing it was key to the end of the Cold War.

The risk of using nuclear weapons is the highest since the Second World War, a senior UN security expert said, calling it an "urgent" issue that the world needs to address more seriously, Reuters reported.

Renata Dwan called this "an urgent issue that the world should take more seriously," Reuters is reporting.