Russian nuclear weapons treaty: Biden administration orders investigation into Russian crimes while seeking extension of nuclear weapons treaty

However, Psaki told reporters that the Biden government is prepared to work with Russia on the New START Treaty, telling reporters that “the United States intends to seek a five-year extension … as the treaty allows”.

This historic nuclear weapons control agreement expires on February 5.

“The president made it clear long ago that the New START Treaty is in the interest of the national security of the United States, and that extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversary, as it is at this moment,” she said.

“The new START is the only remaining treaty that restricts Russian nuclear forces and is an anchor for strategic stability between our two countries,” added Psaki.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby welcomed the move and noted that “we cannot afford to lose New START’s intrusive inspection and notification tools.”

“Not quickly extending the New START would weaken the United States’ understanding of Russia’s long-range nuclear forces,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “Extending the treaty’s limitations to strategic nuclear weapon stocks by 2026 provides time and space for our two countries to explore new verifiable arms control arrangements that can further reduce the risks for Americans.”

“Just as we engage Russia in ways that promote American interests, we in the Department will remain alert to the challenges that Russia poses and committed to defending the nation against its reckless and adversarial actions,” said Kirby.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, is scheduled to meet President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday to discuss the treaty, according to Russian officials who spoke to CNN upon entering the Department. of State for meetings with other United States officials on Thursday afternoon.

Biden’s team signaled that it was in favor of extending the treaty

Daryl Kimball, the director of the Arms Control Association, called this “a senseless, senseless adult decision.”

“The new START Treaty is essential for the security of the United States and Russia, it is the only treaty left to regulate the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world,” he told CNN.

“The Russian arsenal is the greatest threat to the existence of the United States, so extending this treaty to the maximum allowed by it makes sense. It provides the time it will take to negotiate subsequent agreements, ‘he explained.

“These negotiations will be extraordinarily difficult because we have more than a decade of accumulated problems that need to be resolved in the US-Russia nuclear relationship.”

Kimball noted that Moscow is in favor of an unconditional five-year extension and predicted that, “save unforeseen complications, concluding this agreement is a matter of resolving the technical details in the next two weeks”.

Regarding the New START Treaty, the appointed Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that Biden intended to seek an extension of the treaty, but suggested that he had not taken a decision on the extension of that extension.

Blinken noted that Biden “could not really get involved” in the issue during the transition because he was “very aware of the fact that we have one president at a time”.

The Trump administration went back and forth with the Russians under a shorter extension of the old treaty, after efforts to create a new trilateral treaty with Russia and China failed.