US President Joe Biden has called Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START or START III) a mistake. The words of the American leader son Associated Press (AP).
“That’s a big mistake,” Biden said in a chat with reporters.
AP notes that this is Biden’s first comment regarding Putin’s move on a joint nuclear missile treaty with the United States. This sounded during the European tour of the American leader – first he went to Ukraine, then to Poland. On February 22, Biden participates in the Bucharest Nine summit of NATO – Eastern European countries members of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Putin had announced the day before, on February 21, during his message to the Federal Assembly, the suspension of Russia’s participation in START. The Russian leader explained the decision by the actions of the West and NATO, which he said are involved in Ukraine’s attempts to strike Russian strategic airbases. The alliance’s demand to return to implementing START, which involves admitting Western inspections of Russian nuclear facilities, has been called by Putin a “theater of the absurd”.
February 22 State Duma and Federation Council unanimously supported the law on the suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty with the United States on nuclear weapons. The US State Department representative said that Washington is always ready to negotiate with Moscow on START and nuclear stability issues. In turn, the Kremlin assured that Russia can return to the implementation of the agreement if the West is ready to “take into account our concerns”.
How Russia and the United States reacted to the suspension of Russia’s participation in START, read the material from RTVI.
The START Treaty was signed by Russian and US Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in 2010. The document entered into force in February 2011 for a period of 10 years. In 2021, Putin extended the contract for five years. This is the last of the ongoing bilateral agreements between the United States and Russia in the field of security. Is it possible to maintain agreements on nuclear weapons after the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the START treaty and is it worth fearing a further escalation of the arms race, reads the material of RTVI.