In a letter addressed to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson published on Thursday, the senators stressed that while the countries have many significant disagreements, including alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US elections and the “annexation” of Crimea, Moscow and Washington need to come to the negotiation table.
It said: “A US-Russia Strategic Dialogue is more urgent following President Putin’s public address on March 1st when he referred to several new nuclear weapons Russia is reportedly developing, including a cruise missile and a nuclear underwater drone.”
The lawmakers are concerned that some of the brand-new Russian nuclear weapons are not covered by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and called for the agreement to be extended.
Some of the weapons in question include a cruise missile with virtually no range limit and nuclear-powered drone which travels underwater.
The letter accused Russia of non-compliance with the 1982 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).
It also called on the State Department to address the alleged violation.
Moscow and Washington have accused each other of violating the INF-Treaty violations for several years.
The US accuses Russia of developing missile systems with ranged prohibited by the agreement without any specific information to support the allegations.
The Kremlin has its own list of complaints about US shortcomings in relation to the treaty.
These include the US drone programme and the ground placement of a naval vertical launch system in Europe.
In December 2017, Putin said Washington had been creating conditions to leave the accord and said the process of its withdrawal has already begun.
Earlier this month, Putin presented a set of advanced Russian nuclear weapons, some of which have not yet been named.
Putin also stressed Russia would need all these weapons because of legitimate concerns.
He said: “Nobody wanted to talk to us about the root of the problem. Nobody listened to us; so listen to us now!”
The speech led to criticisms from the West of sabre-rattling and starting a new arms race.
The letter was signed by US Senators Edward J. Markey, Jeff Merkley, Dianne Feinstein and Bernie Sanders.