- Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on United States’ Suspension of the CFE Treaty Alongside NATO Allies The White House
- Russia formally withdraws from key post-Cold War European armed forces treaty Reuters
- Russia formally pulls out of Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Al Jazeera English
- NATO freezes a Cold War-era security pact after Russia pulls out, raising questions on arms control The Associated Press
- NATO announces formal suspension of Cold War-era security treaty after Russia’s pullout The Boston Globe
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: treaty
Russia blocks final draft of nuclear disarmament treaty at UN
The treaty is reviewed every five years as part of an effort to reduce nuclear risks and stop the expansion of nuclear arsenals around the world.
Russia had tried to make amendments to the treaty which would have “produced chaos” at this late stage in the negotiations, said UN Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen.
“It’s like we made a movie this month, but don’t have the final picture,” Zlauvinen said.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said the lack of action was inexcusable at a time of heightened risk.
“This result is terminally unserious and a total abdication of responsibility in the face of an unacceptably dangerous global situation,” the group’s Executive Director Beatrice Fihn said.
“The nuclear-armed states have not only failed to make progress on their disarmament obligations but have spent over $82 billion on maintaining and upgrading their arsenals, when the risk of use of nuclear weapons is higher than ever, the failure of the review conference to take any action is inexcusable,” Fihn added.
Meanwhile the United States and dozens of other countries issued a joint statement warning of the threat posed by Russia’s takeover of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe’s largest.
The threat of nuclear calamity has loomed for months since the plant fell into Russian control in March. Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry inside the complex and using it as cover to launch attacks, knowing that Ukraine can’t return fire without risking hitting one of the plant’s six reactors.
“We condemn the interference of the representatives of the Russian Federation in the (power plant’s) operations and efforts to extend the Russian Federation’s control over the plant,” said the joint statement.
“We demand that Russia immediately withdraw its armed forces from Ukraine and hand back full control of (the power plant), as well as of all nuclear facilities within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, to the proper Ukrainian authorities in order to ensure their safe and secure operations.”
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was first signed in 1968 and went into effect in 1970. One hundred and ninety one parties have signed up to it, including the five nuclear weapon states, according to the UN.
Russia blocks final document at nuclear treaty conference
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia late Friday blocked agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the U.N. treaty considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament which criticized its military takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear plant soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, an act that has raised fears of a nuclear disaster.
Igor Vishnevetsky, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department, told the delayed final meeting of the conference reviewing the 50-year-old Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that “unfortunately there is no consensus on this document.” He insisted that many countries — not just Russia — didn’t agree with “a whole host of issues” in the 36-page last draft.
The final document needed approval of all countries at the conference that are parties to the treaty aimed at curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately achieving a world without them.
Argentine Ambassador Gustavo Zlauvinen, president of the conference, said the final draft represented his best efforts to address divergent views and the expectations of the parties “for a progressive outcome” at a moment in history when “our world is increasingly wracked by conflicts, and, most alarmingly, the ever growing prospect of the unthinkable nuclear war.”
But after Vishnevetsky spoke, Zlauvinen told delegates, “I see that at this point, the conference is not in a position to achieve agreement on its substantive work.”
The NPT review conference is supposed to be held every five years but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This marked the second failure of its 191 state parties to produce an outcome document. The last review conference in 2015 ended without an agreement because of serious differences over establishing a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction.
Those differences haven’t gone away but are being discussed, and the draft outcome documents obtained by The Associated Press would have reaffirmed the importance of establishing a nuclear-free Mideast zone. So, this was not viewed as a major stumbling block this year.
The issue that changed the dynamics of the conference was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, which brought Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia is a “potent” nuclear power and that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.” He also put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert.
Putin has since rolled back, saying that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” a message reiterated by a senior Russian official on the opening day of the NPT conference on Aug. 2.
But the Russian leader’s initial threat and the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine as well as the takeover of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986, renewed global fears of another nuclear emergency.
The four references in the draft final document to the Zaporizhzhia plant, where Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling, would have had the parties to the NPT express “grave concern for the military activities” at or near the facility and other nuclear plants.
It also would have recognized Ukraine’s loss of control and the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inability to ensure the plant’s nuclear material is safeguarded. It supported IAEA efforts to visit Zaporizhzhia to ensure there is no diversion of its nuclear materials, a trip the agency’s director is hoping to organize in the coming days.
The draft also expressed “grave concern” at the safety of Ukraine’s nuclear facilities, in particular Zaporizhzia, and stressed “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities.”
After the conference’s failure to adopt the document, dozens of countries took the floor to express their views.
Indonesia, speaking on behalf of the Nonaligned Movement comprising 120 developing countries, expressed disappointment at the failure, calling the final document “of utmost importance.”
Yann Hwang, France’s ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, read a statement on behalf of 56 countries and the European Union reaffirming unwavering support to Ukraine and deploring Russia’s “dangerous nuclear rhetoric, actions and provocative statements about raising its nuclear alert level.”
The countries expressed deep concern that Russia is undermining international peace and the objectives of the NPT “by waging its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Russia’s deputy delegation head, Andrei Belousov, said the conference had become “a political hostage” to countries that were “poisoning discussions” with political language on Ukraine and were determined “to settle scores with Russia by raising issues that are not directly related to the treaty.”
“These states, namely Ukraine and the backers of the Kyiv regime, bear full responsibility for the absence of a final positive result,” he said.
Adam Scheinman, the U.S. special representative for nuclear nonproliferation, noted the final draft never named Russia, and he said it understated the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant “and failed to acknowledge what we all know to be true — that the risk of radiological disaster only exists because of Russia’s war of choice.”
“Russia is the reason we do not have consensus today,” he said. “The last-minute changes that Russia sought were not of a minor character. They were intended to shield Russia’s obvious intent to wipe Ukraine off the map.”
Under the NPT’s provisions, the five original nuclear powers — the United States, China, Russia (then the Soviet Union), Britain and France — agreed to negotiate toward eliminating their arsenals someday and nations without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them in exchange for a guarantee to be able to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The draft final document would have expressed deep concern “that the threat of nuclear weapons use today is higher than at any time since the heights of the Cold War and at the deteriorated international security environment.” It would also have committed parties to the treaty “to making every effort to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again.”
Rebecca Johnson, a British nuclear analyst and co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, said that “after weeks of negotiations at a time of war, unprecedented global risks and heightened nuclear threats, it is clearer than ever now that nuclear abolition is urgent and necessary.”
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said: “This NPT conference represents a missed opportunity to strengthen the treaty and global security by agreeing to a specific action plan with benchmarks and timeframes that is essential to effectively address the growing dangers of nuclear arms racing and nuclear weapons use.”
Russia blocks UN nuclear treaty agreement over Zaporizhzhia clause | Russia
Russia has blocked an agreement at the United Nations that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) because Moscow objected to a clause about control over the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine.
The failure to agree to a joint statement after four weeks of debate and negotiation among 151 countries at the UN in New York is the latest blow to hopes of maintaining an arms control regime and keeping a lid on a rekindled arms race.
The closing session was put off for more than four hours over Russian refusal to agree to a lengthy statement of support for the NPT which included a reference to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian forces close to the frontline in Ukraine’s south-east.
Alarm was raised on Thursday when the plant was temporarily cut off from the Ukrainian electricity grid but the connection was restored. Russian forces are reportedly planning to sever the plant more permanently from the grid, raising concerns of a possible disaster.
A paragraph in the final draft text on Friday stressed “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities of nuclear facilities … such as the Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant”.
The Russian delegation was the only one to speak against the agreed text, but blamed the breakdown of the conference on Ukraine and its “protectors”, calling the negotiations a “one-sided game”. After delivering its statement, the Russian delegation walked out of the UN chamber.
The NPT was a deal struck in 1968 in which nuclear weapons states pledged to disarm while states without nuclear weapons promised not to acquire them. At the time there were five acknowledged nuclear powers, though Israel had secretly developed a weapon of its own by then. There are now nine states which possess nuclear warheads. Before the NPT came into force, some had predicted there would be dozens countries with their own arsenals.
It is the second five-yearly review conference that has failed to issue a joint statement recommitting to the goals of the treaty. It has been 12 years since there was even partial agreement.
But Sarah Bidgood, the director of the Eurasia nonproliferation program at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, said the NPT was not irreparably broken, and that every other country would have accepted the text.
“The bigger takeaway for me is just how far-reaching the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine has become,” she said. “Even at some of the darkest moments of the cold war, cooperation in support of the NPT was often possible. But what we saw at the final plenary today does not bode well for the future of nuclear diplomacy, including on issues like arms control.”
Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, said the disarmament elements in the proposed text had already been diluted by all five of the official nuclear powers recognised by the treaty – Russia, the US, France, the UK and China.
“So, in all honesty, I don’t think it makes much difference,” she said. “This is the very dangerous game the nuclear weapon states are playing by consistently failing to achieve anything in this treaty. At some point, non nuclear weapon states are really going to start questioning whether or not this treaty is worth the effort, and if it’s relevant.”
Fihn argued that the continued failure of NPT review conferences to find common ground meant it was all the more important for countries to join the treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons (TPNW), which seeks to ban them outright. It came into force in January 2021, and so far 66 states have ratified or acceded to the treaty.
“It’s going to be really relevant that we quickly move forward with the TPNW and get more states,” Fihn said. “It’s really an insurance that if [the NPT] continues to fail, that we don’t stand without anything.”
Algeria suspends Spain treaty, bars imports over Western Sahara
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, speaks during the start of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured), at El Mouradia Palace, the President’s official residence in Algiers, Algeria March 30, 2022. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
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ALGIERS/MADRID, June 8 (Reuters) – Algeria suspended a 20-year-old friendship treaty with Spain that committed the two sides to cooperation in controlling migration flows, and also banned imports from Spain, escalating a row over Madrid’s stance on Western Sahara.
Algerian state media reported the suspension of the treaty without citing any reason, though Algeria had in March withdrawn its ambassador to Spain for consultations because of the Western Sahara dispute. read more
Spanish diplomatic sources said Spain regretted the decision but remained committed to the content and principle of the treaty.
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Separately, Algeria’s banking association issued a statement telling banks that imports of goods and services from Spain were stopping because the treaty was suspended.
The 2002 treaty called on both sides to “deepen their cooperation in the control of migratory flows and the fight against trafficking against human beings” according to the text recorded in Spain’s official journal.
On Wednesday, 113 undocumented migrants arrived in Spain’s Balearic islands, a route that Spanish authorities said tended to be used by boats coming from Algeria.
Migrant flows have sharply increased across the Mediterranean this year as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit the global economy.
Algeria was angered when Spain said in March it supported a Moroccan plan to offer autonomy to Western Sahara. Algeria backs the Polisario Front movement seeking full independence for the territory, which Morocco regards as its own and mostly controls. read more
A former Algerian official told Reuters that Algiers believed the Spanish government had decided not to preserve good ties with Algeria.
Algeria is a key gas supplier to Spain, but Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has previously said he would not break the supply contract over the row.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said there was no indication that had changed and Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said Algeria’s gas supply conduct had been exemplary.
Algeria is expected to review prices for any new gas contract with Spanish firms, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The current contract is long-term with prices well under the current market level, the same source, who asked not to be identified, said.
Since the Western Sahara conflict flared again in 2020, nearly three decades after a ceasefire, relations between Algeria and Morocco have sharply deteriorated. read more
Spain’s shift towards Morocco’s stance on Western Sahara ended a dispute between Madrid and Rabat last year involving both the disputed territory and migration. read more
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Reporting by Enas Alashray and Lamine Chikhi; editing by Angus McDowall and Richard Pullin
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Japan opposes Russian withdrawal from World War II peace treaty talks over sanctions
Russia and Japan have still not formally ended World War II hostilities because of the standoff over islands just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. The islands were seized by the Soviets at the end of World War II.
“Under the current conditions Russia does not intend to continue negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, citing Japan’s “openly unfriendly positions and attempts to damage the interests of our country.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he strongly opposed Russia’s decision, terming it “unfair” and “completely unacceptable.”
“This entire situation has been created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s response to push this onto Japan-Russia relations is extremely unfair and completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that Japan’s attitudes towards seeking a peace treaty were unchanged and it had protested the Russian move.
“Japan must resolutely continue to sanction Russia in cooperation with the rest of the world,” he added.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Japan had lodged a protest with Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Japan last week announced plans to revoke Russia’s most-favored nation trade status, expand the scope of asset freezes against Russian elites and ban imports of certain products.
When announcing the measures last week, Kishida said that Japan will also collaborate with international aid agencies to deliver food and medicine to Ukrainians. He added Japan had started accepting evacuees from Ukraine and called on the public’s support.
Last year, President Vladimir Putin said that both Tokyo and Moscow wanted good relations and called it absurd they had not reached a peace agreement.
Russia has also withdrawn from talks with Japan about joint business projects on the Kuril Islands and ended visa-free travel by Japanese citizens, the statement said.
Montreux Convention: How a 1936 treaty could force Turkey to take sides in the Ukraine war
Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar went on local television last week and appealed for the government in Ankara to close its key straits to Russian warships under provisions of the 1936 Montreux Convention. Turkey said it could only do so if it officially recognized the conflict as a war, and on Sunday, that’s what it did.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government would “use the authority given to our country by the Montreux Convention on ship traffic in the straits in a way that will prevent the crisis from escalating.”
While Erdogan said he considered “Russia’s attack on Ukraine unacceptable,” he also said Turkey would not abandon its ties with Russia or Ukraine.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is the Montreux Convention?
The convention gives Turkey certain control over the passage of warships from the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits that connect the Aegean, Marmara, and Black Sea.
In peace time, warships can pass the straits by prior diplomatic notification with certain limitations on the weight of the ships and arms they carry — and depending on whether the ship belongs to a Black Sea nation or not. And at times of war, Turkey can bar the passage of the warships of belligerent parties from crossing.
According to the convention, if Turkey is a party to the war or considers itself threatened with imminent danger, it can shut down the straits to the passage of warships.
How does this affect Russia?
Both Russia and Ukraine lie on the Black Sea, along with Romania and NATO members Bulgaria and Georgia. Turkey can limit the transit of Russian warships from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea through its straits under the Montreux Convention, but the pact has a caveat: belligerent states’ warships can cross if they are returning to their base of origin.
“If the ship of the war country will return to its port, an exception is made. We will implement all the provisions of Montreux with transparency,” said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, adding that the exception should not be abused.
The move would only be symbolic, said Mustafa Aydin, president of the International Relations Council of Turkey.
“Russia has enough firepower in the Black Sea that it doesn’t make sense for NATO countries to [enter],” he said. “Russia has complete supremacy on the water.”
But if the war drags on, Moscow may feel the heat, since Russia had already completed its naval buildup in the Black Sea by shifting units from the Baltic Sea ahead of the start of hostilities, said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.
Earlier in February, six Russian warships and a submarine transited the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits to the Black Sea for what Moscow called naval drills near Ukrainian waters.
“They [Russia] probably have enough resources to sustain their naval power in the Black Sea for about two to three months,” he said. “But if conflict drags on, it’ll be a different story.”
Why did Turkey declare the conflict a war?
Guvenc said he hadn’t expected Turkey to take a decision so soon, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “put Ankara on the spot” by prematurely thanking Turkey on Twitter for its support.
Turkey has said that it has historically respected the treaty and will continue to do so.
Guvenc said it’s in Ankara’s interest to do so because the treaty supports Turkey at times of war. Any exception made to please Russia could jeopardize the treaty’s credibility in the long run.
“The United States is very interested in the idea of unrestricted freedom of navigation through the Turkish straits, as is the case with other waterways like the Suez and Panama canals,” he said. A deviation from the convention would give the US “a legitimate reason to question Turkey’s status as the watchdog of Montreux.”
How could this affect Turkey’s foreign relations?
Turkey has a maritime border with both Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea and views both countries as friendly. Ankara relies on Russia for tourism and natural gas but also has close economic and defense ties to Ukraine and has, despite Russian objections, sold drones to the country.
The Soviet Union, the Russian state’s predecessor, was one of the original signatories of the Montreux Convention.
“Russia knows the intricacies of the politics and the law and would have been prepared for such an eventuality,” said Guvenc. Moscow, however, may not have expected Ankara to act on the treaty so soon, he added.
“Turkey can sell this move as purely observing an obligation under international law,” he said, but the move may be an indication of where Turkey may lean if the conflict drags on. “Turkey has decided to align more with its traditional allies in NATO and the European Union, and a bit away from Russia.”
Other top Middle East news
Iran rejects deadline, ‘politically motivated’ claims in nuclear talks
Iran said on Sunday it will not accept any deadline set by the West to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, and wants what it described as “politically motivated” claims by UN watchdog IAEA about Tehran’s nuclear work to be dropped, Iranian state TV reported.
- Background: One of the sticking points in the indirect talks between Iran and the United States to revive the deal appears to be questions about uranium traces found by the IAEA at old but undeclared sites in Iran.
- Why it matters: Media reports said that the US had set a deadline for the nuclear talks in the Austrian capital Vienna. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator was due to return to Vienna on Sunday evening for the talks.
UAE not taking sides in Ukraine war, senior official says
The United Arab Emirates wants to encourage a political solution for the Ukraine war and taking sides would only encourage violence, a senior UAE official said on Sunday.
- Background: The comment, posted by Anwar Gargash on Twitter, comes after the UAE abstained from a Friday vote on a draft United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. It did not pass because of Russia’s veto. Read full story
- Why it matters: Gulf Arab states have so far taken a neutral stance between Western allies and Russia, with which they are partners under an oil producers’ alliance known as OPEC+. Saudi Arabia and the UAE also have investment and business ties with Moscow.
UN Security Council to vote on Houthi arms embargo
The Security Council is due to vote Monday on a proposal by the United Arab Emirates to impose an arms embargo on Yemen’s Houthis after the group claimed several drone and missile assaults on the country this year.
- Background: A year ago, the US revoked a designation of the Houthis as a terrorist organization over concerns that it would worsen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and some US lawmakers are pressing the White House to return the Houthi movement to the US list of foreign terrorist groups over the recent Houthi attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
- Why it matters: The measure would expand a targeted UN arms embargo on several Houthi leaders to the whole group. The measure needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by any of the Security Council’s permanent members — Russia, the US, Britain, France or China.
Around the region
Iraqi archaeological authorities reopened a site at the ancient city of Hatra last week following the partial completion of a renovation project of the site once destroyed by ISIS militants years ago, Reuters reports.
Officials say nearly 15% of the site was destroyed by ISIS militants, who took over large swathes of the country.
Images published online in 2015 allegedly showed what is described as ISIS militants destroying statues and artifacts at the site with sledgehammers and pickaxes.
The renovation project is carried out in cooperation with the Italian International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO). Only 5% of the destruction has been renovated and the rest of the project is underway, officials added.
Hatra, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was among many sites destroyed by ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, including the 2,700-year-old city of Khorsabad famed for its colossal statues of human-headed winged bulls.
ISIS once ruled a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria which contain some of the richest archaeological treasures on earth, where ancient Assyrian empires built their capitals, Greco-Roman civilization flourished and Muslim and Christian sects co-existed for centuries.
Picture of the day
Turkey formally quits treaty to prevent violence against women
Thousands were set to protest across Turkey, where a court appeal to halt the withdrawal was rejected this week.
“We will continue our struggle,” Canan Gullu, president of the Federation of Turkish Women’s Associations, said on Wednesday. “Turkey is shooting itself in the foot with this decision.”
She said that since March, women and other vulnerable groups had been more reluctant to ask for help and less likely to receive it, with Covid-19 fueled economic difficulties causing a dramatic increase in violence against them.
The Istanbul Convention, negotiated in Turkey’s biggest city and signed in 2011, committed its signatories to prevent and prosecute domestic violence and promote equality.
Ankara’s withdrawal triggered condemnation from both the United States and the European Union, and critics say it puts Turkey even further out of step with the bloc that it applied to join in 1987.
Femicide has surged in Turkey, with one monitoring group logging roughly one per day in the last five years.
Proponents of the convention and related legislation say more stringent implementation is needed.
But many conservatives in Turkey and in Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party say the pact undermines the family structures that protect society.
Some also see the Convention as promoting homosexuality through its principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
“Our country’s withdrawal from the convention will not lead to any legal or practical shortcoming in the prevention of violence against women,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement to the administrative court on Tuesday.
This month, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic sent a letter to Turkey’s interior and justice ministers expressing concern about a rise in homophobic narratives by some officials, some of which targeted the convention.
“All the measures provided for by the Istanbul Convention reinforce family foundations and links by preventing and combating the main cause of destruction of families, that is, violence,” she said.
Amnesty International said the decision “set the clock back ten years on women’s rights and set a terrifying precedent.”
“The withdrawal sends a reckless and dangerous message to perpetrators who abuse, maim and kill: that they can carry on doing so with impunity,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.
Russia welcomes US proposal to extend nuclear treaty
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Friday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, which is set to expire in less than two weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia stands for extending the pact and is waiting to see the details of the U.S. proposal.
The White House said Thursday that Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of the New START treaty.
“We can only welcome political will to extend the document,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “But all will depend on the details of the proposal.”
The treaty, signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance. It expires on Feb. 5.
Russia has long proposed to prolong the pact without any conditions or changes, but President Donald Trump’s administration waited until last year to start talks and made the extension contingent on a set of demands. The talks stalled, and months of bargaining have failed to narrow differences.
“Certain conditions for the extension have been put forward, and some of them have been absolutely unacceptable for us, so let’s see first what the U.S. is offering,” Peskov said.
Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador at the international organizations in Vienna, also hailed Biden’s proposal as an “encouraging step.”
“The extension will give the two sides more time to consider possible additional measures aimed at strengthening strategic stability and global security,” he tweeted.
Biden indicated during the campaign that he favored the preservation of the New START treaty, which was negotiated during his tenure as U.S. vice president.
The talks on the treaty’s extension also were clouded by tensions between Russia and the United States, which have been fueled by the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other irritants.
Despite the extension proposal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden remains committed to holding Russia “to account for its reckless and adversarial actions,” such as its alleged involvement in the Solar Winds hacking event, 2020 election interference, the chemical poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny and the widely reported allegations that Russia may have offered bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Asked to comment on Psaki’s statement, Peskov has reaffirmed Russia’s denial of involvement in any such activities.
After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries.
Arms control advocates have strongly called for New START’s preservation, warning that its lapse would remove any checks on U.S. and Russian nuclear forces.
Last week, Russia also declared that it would follow the U.S. to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities to help build trust and transparency between Russia and the West.
While Russia always offered to extend New START for five years — a possibility envisaged by the pact — Trump asserted that it put the U.S. at a disadvantage and initially insisted that China be added to the treaty, an idea that Beijing flatly rejected. Trump’s administration then proposed to extend New START for just one year and also sought to expand it to include limits on battlefield nuclear weapons.
Moscow has said it remains open for new nuclear arms talks with the U.S. to negotiate future limits on prospective weapons, but emphasized that preserving New START is essential for global stability.
Russian diplomats have said that Russia’s prospective Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle could be counted along with other Russian nuclear weapons under the treaty.
The Sarmat is still under development, while the first missile unit armed with the Avangard became operational in December 2019.
The Russian military has said the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound and could make sharp maneuvers on its way to a target to bypass missile defense systems. It has been fitted to the existing Soviet-built intercontinental ballistic missiles instead of older type warheads, and in the future could be fitted to the more powerful Sarmat.