HELSINKI \u2014 The top U.S. negotiator in nuclear arms control talks with Russia held in Helsinki says a one-day follow-up meeting to earlier talks in Austria has yielded \u201cimportant progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ambassador Marshall Billingslea, President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy for arms control, gave the upbeat view in a tweet Tuesday, a day after the talks in the Finnish capital with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. He gave no further detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The low-profile negotiations were meant as an update to a U.S.-Russia dialogue on nuclear arms<\/a> in Vienna in June, July and August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday\u2019s talks are thought to have focused on producing a new agreement to replace, or to extend, the New START treaty<\/a> that expires in February \u2014 the last remaining pact constraining the arsenals of the world\u2019s two major nuclear powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Moscow, the tone was much more skeptical. Speaking at a meeting with European business leaders on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington of \u201cunilateralism\u201d and said the New START treaty would likely cease to exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\t