NATO expects that Russia and the US will extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty which expires in 2021, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

"I hope that they will find a way to do so because arms control is a way to avoid a new arms race and that is especially important when it comes to nuclear weapons and I therefore welcome the fact that this is an issue that is now discussed Russia and the US," Stoltenberg said, adding that he repeatedly brings up the subject in his contacts with the Russian and US leadership.

The New START Treaty signed by Russia and the United States on April 8, 2010, came into force in 2011. According to the document, each party must meet its strategic arms reduction limits within seven years after its enactment, and in the future the total number would not exceed 700 deployed ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), SLBMs (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) and heavy bombers, and 1,550 warheads emplaced on them, and 800 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers and SLBM launchers, and deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers. New START will remain in force for 10 years (until 2021), if it is not replaced by a new agreement before then. It may also be extended for no more than five years (that is, until 2026) if both sides agree.