The U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce that the U.S. Nuclear Risk Reduction Center (NRRC) held consultations this week in Washington, DC, with its Russian counterpart, the Russian NRRC. The U.S. Department of State operates the United States communications links used to exchange information and notifications with foreign governments in support of arms control treaties and security-building agreements. This past April the U.S. and Russian NRRCs marked the 25th anniversary of the first exchange of notifications.

The NRRCs were established under an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987 and are an integral part of the arms control verification, compliance and implementation process. In that capacity, the Centers are responsible for several vital and time-sensitive communications required by arms control treaties and security agreements. The U.S. NRRC exchanges an average of 7,000 notifications annually with its international partners. The U.S. and Russian NRRCs have exchanged nearly five thousand New START Treaty notifications since entry into force in 2011.

During the September 16-18 2013 consultations, the delegations discussed technical issues related to information exchanges and related operational issues. One such operational issue was the implementation of U.S. – Russian bilateral cyber security confidence building measures, as agreed by President Obama and President Putin in Northern Ireland on June 17th of this year.

For further information, please click here: http://t.state.gov/t/avc/nrrc/nrrc.htm.