The United States announces that it is willing to negotiate a new agreement with Russia to replace the START Treaty

Aug. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States, ahead of the tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which begins this Monday, has announced that it is willing to negotiate a new agreement with Russia to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START ) once it expires.

“My Administration is ready to quickly negotiate a new arms control framework to replace New START when it expires in 2026 (February 5). But the negotiation requires a willing partner that operates in good faith,” said the President of the United States. States, Joe Biden, in a White House statement.

Washington and Moscow announced in February 2021 the entry into force of the five-year extension of said treaty with the aim of strengthening “the national security of both countries” and ensuring “verifiable limits on intercontinental nuclear weapons.”

Faced with a possible new agreement to replace the previous one, the US president has clearly referred to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, which “has shattered peace in Europe and constitutes an attack on the fundamental principles of international order.”

In this context, the Biden Administration has indicated that “Russia must demonstrate that it is ready to resume work on nuclear arms control with the United States” and has focused on China, since the Asian giant “also has a responsibility” to reduce “calculation errors”.

“There is no benefit to any of our nations, or to the world, in resisting a substantive commitment to arms control and nuclear non-proliferation,” he said, adding that the ultimate goal is “a world without nuclear weapons.”

START was signed in 1991 by the then leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, George HW Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. In April 2010, the agreement was replaced by the New START treaty, signed by the then presidents of the United States and Russia, Barack Obama and Dimitri Medvedev.

“In this time of uncertainty and turmoil on the world stage, it has never been more crucial to reaffirm our shared commitment to the basic principles of the global non-proliferation regime,” Biden concluded.