The verification regime of a new nuclear arms reduction agreement should be less rigid compared to the expiring Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1), Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Tuesday.
"The old treaty was concluded in the absence of mutual confidence during the Cold War," Lavrov said on board a plane heading from India to Russia.
"Now the Americans and we said that we no longer view each other as enemies, and therefore
I think the verification mechanism will be simpler and less costly," he said.
Lavrov said the United States would formally respond to Russia' s nuclear weapons reduction proposals in the next few days.
The U.S. counter proposals should address Moscow's concerns over Washington's plans to develop strategic conventional weapons, he added.
The top diplomat said there would be no pause in strategic arms control after the current
treaty expires and until a new agreement comes into force.
The Kremlin said on Saturday the Russian and U.S. presidents expected a treaty to be ready
by early December.
The START-1, signed in 1991 between the Soviet Union and the United States, obliges both
sides to reduce their nuclear warheads to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to 1,600.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama agreed at a July
summit in Moscow on the outline of the new arms cuts treaty, including slashing their countries'
nuclear arsenals to 1,500-1,675 operational warheads and delivery vehicles to 500-1,000.