United States wants to extend nuclear weapons treaty with Russia for five years | NOW

US President Joe Biden wants to extend the treaty with Russia on the limitation of nuclear weapons for five years. Biden’s spokesperson said the government must speed up the decision as the 2010 Strategic Nuclear Weapons Reduction Treaty (new START) expires on February 5.

Moscow and the Trump administration appeared to have reached an agreement on a one-year extension last fall, but more time seemed needed to talk about freezing the current nuclear arsenal. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it was still open to an extension, after future Bidens foreign minister Antony Blinken said he was in favor of it as well.

It is the last major treaty between the superpowers on arms control. This means that Russian and US nuclear weapons stocks will be reduced to 1,550 operational warheads each.

Without extension, there are fears of an arms race and growing tension between Moscow and Washington. The treaty is clearly in the interests of US security, especially given its “hostile” relationship with Russia, a senior official said. The Washington Post.

The United States has already pushed for a new arms treaty in which China should also participate. This country has made it clear that it does not want to.