Nuclear warhead freeze seen close

WASHINGTON — U.S. and Russian negotiators have agreed in principle to continue freezing their nuclear warhead stockpiles in a bid to salvage their last remaining arms control pact before it expires next year, a person familiar with the talks said Friday.

The person said it's not yet clear if the agreement for a freeze will succeed or translate into an extension of the New START treaty that expires in February.

But, if it works, the person said an agreement could be announced before the Nov. 3 presidential election with an eye toward extending the accord and eventually bringing China into it, a longtime Trump administration demand.

The person said President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have signed off on the freeze, but negotiators still need to iron out details, including compliance and verification issues. The person spoke to reporters after the last round of U.S,-Russia arms control talks in Helsinki this week. The person, who was not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said follow-up discussions between Washington and Moscow would take place next week.

The Russians have been told that if a freeze isn't agreed to in the coming weeks, the United States may harden its conditions.

After the last talks in Helsinki on Monday, lead U.S. negotiator Marshall Billingslea, Trump's special envoy for arms control, said the meeting had yielded “important progress.”

But Russia has had a more skeptical view of the talks, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday accusing Washington of “unilateralism.” He said the New START treaty likely would cease to exist because the conditions the U.S. has put forward for extending it “don't take into account our interests or the experience of many decades when arms control has existed to mutual satisfaction.”

Russian diplomats repeatedly have emphasized that Moscow considers the limits on launch platforms — missiles, bombers and submarines — much more important than the restrictions on the number of warheads.