Biden proposes five-year extension to nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia

The US President Joe Biden on January 21 has proposed a five-year extension of New START with Russia which is also the last remaining nuclear reduction treaty between both the countries but also pledged to pressure Moscow in other aspects. Russia and the United States signed the New START with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms on April 8, 2010, in Prague and entered into force on February 5, 2011.  It limits both the nations to have 1,550 nuclear warheads each and is set to expire on February 5 after the negotiations halted under former US President Donald Trump.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told at her first news briefing that, “I can confirm that the United States intends to seek a five-year extension of New START, as the treaty permits.  The President has long been clear that the New START Treaty is in the national security interests of the United States.  And this extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial, as it is at this time.

“New START is the only remaining treaty constraining Russian nuclear forces and is an anchor of strategic stability between our two countries,” she added.

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‘Will hold Russia to account’, says Psaki

Further, the White House press secretary has also said that the new intelligence chief Avril Haines would also initiate an investigation into Russia’s alleged poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Psaki also said that the United States would also investigate the bounties that were reportedly paid by the Russian government to extremists in  Afghanistan who killed the American troops.

Psaki told the reporters, “Even as we work with Russia to advance U.S. interests, so too we work to hold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions.  And to this end, the President is also issuing a tasking to the intelligence community for its full assessment of the SolarWinds cyber breach, Russian interference in the 2020 election, its use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and the alleged bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.”

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