Biden seeking 5-year extension of nuclear treaty with Russians
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is proposing to Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty limiting the number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons, American officials said Thursday.
Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, had planned to convey the extension proposal to Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter not yet publicly announced by the administration. A second U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the proposal but offered no details.
The move, providing an early signal of Biden’s intent to pursue arms control, is almost certain to be welcomed by Russia and key U.S. allies. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday called on the U.S. and Russia to extend the treaty and to later broaden it.
“We should not end up in a situation with no limitation on nuclear warheads, and New START will expire within days,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
Stoltenberg underlined that “an extension of the New START is not the end, it’s the beginning of our efforts to further strengthen arms control.”
The treaty is set to expire Feb. 5 and is the last remaining agreement constraining U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons. Signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, it limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads.
Former President Donald Trump had been critical of New START, asserting that it put the U.S. at a disadvantage. His administration waited until last year to engage Russia in substantive talks on the treaty’s future. Trump insisted that China be added to the treaty, but Beijing rejected the idea.
Some U.S. officials have been leery of renewing New START without getting a Russian commitment to negotiate limits on new types of strategic weapons, including Moscow’s nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic longrange missile.
Biden, who indicated during the presidential campaign that he favored extending New START, is not proposing any alterations, the U.S. official said. Thus it appeared likely that Moscow would be amenable to an extension.