US President Joe Biden, in one of the first major foreign policy decisionsis seeking a five-year extension to the New START arms control treaty withRussia.
“The President has long been clear that the New START treaty is in thenational security interests of the United States. And this extension makeseven more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial as it isat this time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a briefing.
She also said Biden had “tasked” the US intelligence community for its fullassessment of the Solar Winds cyber breach, Russian interference in the2020 election, Russia’s use of chemical weapons against opposition leaderAlexei Navalny and alleged bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan.
“Even as we work with Russia to advance US interests, so too we work tohold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions,” Psakisaid.
Moreover, the arms control treaty, which is due to expire on February 5,limits the United States and Russia to deploying no more than 1,550strategic nuclear warheads each.
In addition to restricting the number of deployed strategic nuclear weaponsto its lowest level in decades, New START also limits the land- andsubmarine-based missiles and bombers that deliver them.
In a statement, the Pentagon said that Americans were “much safer” with thetreaty intact and extended.
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“Just as we engage Russia in ways that advance American interests, we inthe Department will remain clear-eyed about the challenges Russia poses andcommitted to defending the nation against their reckless and adversarialactions,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
According to the sources, the treaty’s lapse would end all restraints ondeployments of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads and the deliverysystems that carry them, potentially fuelling a new arms race, policyexperts have said.
Earlier, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters that US lawmakershave been briefed on Biden’s decision on the New START treaty.
The Kremlin said it remained committed to extending New START and wouldwelcome efforts promised by the Biden administration to reach agreement.
