Russia calls Sullivan's remark on US' readiness for nuclear arms negotiation 'positive'

Kremlin on Monday, June 5, welcomed the United States national-security adviser Jake Sullivan’s statement calling for bilateral arms control discussions with Russia. Labelling the development as “positive,” Kremlin, in an official statement, said that Russia remains open for dialogue.

Sullivan, in his speech at the Arms Control Association’s annual meeting, said that the United States would abide by the nuclear weapons limits set in the 2010 New START treaty, the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with Moscow that President Vladimir Putin unilaterally suspended in February. Biden administration is ready to talk to Russia “without conditions” about negotiations on the future nuclear arms control framework, Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, noted on June 2.

The latter said that the US is committed to adhering to the treaty if Russia agrees to do the same. Washington “wants to open a dialogue” on a new framework for managing nuclear risks once the treaty expires in February 2026, Sullivan said at the summit. He furthermore stated that the Biden administration will adhere to the warhead caps until the treaty’s end. "We now stand at what our President would call an 'inflexion point' in our nuclear stability and security. A point that demands new strategies for achieving the same goal we’ve held since the Cold War: Reducing the risk of nuclear conflict," said Sullivan. 

“It is in neither of our countries’ interest to embark on opening the competition in the strategic nuclear forces,” Sullivan noted in his speech.

“And rather than waiting to resolve all of our bilateral differences, the United States is ready to engage Russia now to manage nuclear risks and develop a post-2026” agreement, he added.

According to Sullivan, a post-2026 framework will be challenging to figure out due to the escalating tensions between Russia and US, as well as geopolitical rivalry with Moscow’s staunchest ally China. He warned that the new threats that are now challenging the post-Cold War nuclear order, adding that some of these major cracks in the nuclear foundation have come from Russia. Sullivan derided Russia's military for "recklessly attacking and seizing" the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine—the largest operational nuclear plant in Europe. Russian soldiers had "little concern" for the potentially catastrophic consequences of a nuclear incident, he stressed.

Sullivan warned that President Putin's unlawful suspension of Russia’s implementation of the New START Treaty, "could destroy the world many times over." He labelled Putin's withdrawal from Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe as the "final nail in the coffin."

Just last month, Moscow started to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring ally Belarus. Sullivan said, Russia's President has been advancing "dangerous new nuclear capabilities" like radiation-spewing, nuclear-powered cruise missiles—all while modernizing and stockpiling old capabilities that aren’t regulated by arms control agreements. By 2035, the PRC is on track to have as many as 1,500 nuclear warheads, the White House National Security advisor warned, adding that PRC will host one of the largest nuclear build-ups in history.

Putin's unilateral suspension of New START Treaty

Putin, in February, lambasted Washington and its NATO allies for “openly declaring” Russia’s defeat in Ukraine as their ultimate goal. As the two Cold War rivals indulged in exchanging barbs over the war in Ukraine, Russia's President signed a bill formally suspending the nuclear arms reduction pact due to expire in 2026. The bill on the pact’s suspension, which was ratified by both houses of the Russian parliament, states that it is up to the president of the Russian Federation to decide whether Moscow would return to the pact. 

While Russia’s foreign ministry announced that it would respect the nuclear arms treaty’s caps on nukes, it added that Kremlin was suspending all cooperation with the New START Treaty’s provisions, including the nuclear warhead and missile inspections. The cap on nuclear weapons will still be adhered to in order to “maintain a sufficient degree of predictability and stability in the nuclear missile sphere”, the ministry said in an official statement. 

“They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and claim our nuclear facilities,” Putin said of US, and NATO during the state-of-the-nation address. “In this regard, I am forced to state that Russia is suspending its participation in the strategic offensive arms treaty.”

The New START treaty was inked by former US President Barack Obama and his then-Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in 2010. The deal required both nuclear powers to draw down their strategic nuclear warheads. The United States and Russia own about 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. Under the treaty, the US and Russia cannot deploy more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers. Both sides were entitled to at least 18 inspections of strategic nuclear weapons sites every year.

In 2021, after Joe Biden took office, the pact was extended by five more years. The inspections of the nuclear sites, however, were halted in March 2020 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. But talks on negotiation between Moscow and Washington in November last year in Egypt were undergoing.