Senior diplomats from the United States and Russia, the world's two biggest nuclear powers, held arms control talks at a meeting in Vienna on Monday, eight months before a key nuclear weapons pact is to expire. The New START agreement, in force for a decade but due to end in February, is the last remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.

Foreign ministers of NATO members on Friday said they regret Washington’s decision to withdraw from a treaty that allows nations to conduct unarmed observation flights over one another's territory. The same regret expressed the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

The US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed progress in combating the coronavirus pandemic along with arms control issues and oil prices in a phone call on Thursday, news wires reported, citing statements from the White House and the Kremlin.