Unless Moscow and Washington reach a last-minute bilateral understanding of some kind, the New START treaty, signed in 2010 by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will expire on February 5.

“The lack of an answer is also an answer,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted by state news agency TASS as saying in Beijing on the absence of a response from Washington on Russian proposals to extend the limits of New START.

Russia was ready for the new reality of the world’s two largest nuclear powers having no limits for the first time in decades, Ryabkov said.

He also said Russia supported China’s position on arms control.

On Iran, he said the United States’ proposals to Iran were tantamount to ultimatums.

He said that if the US pumped lots of missile defence systems onto Greenland, then Russia would have to take compensatory measures in its military sphere.