WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Thursday that the United States and Russia have been in compliance with a strategic arms reduction treaty.
"The United States has met the central limits of the New START Treaty in August 2017. We assess at this time that Russia has also progressed toward meeting those limits," she said.
The formal name of New START is the Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.
The agreement, signed by the two nations in 2010 and entering into force on Feb. 5, 2011, required the United States and Russia to meet its limits on strategic arms by Feb. 5 this year.
"We have no reason to believe that the Russian Government will not meet those limits as well. Moscow has repeatedly stated its intention to meet those limits on time, and we have no reason to believe that that won't be the case," Nauert said.
She announced that both countries will exchange their data under the treaty within the next month, as they have done for the last seven years.
"We hope each country will confirm the compliance of the other as soon as possible after this data exchange," she added.
The treaty demands Russia and the United States to bring their nuke warheads numbers down to 1,550. The number of delivery vehicles like missiles and bombers will be cut down to 700-800 for each side.
