By Abiola Olawale
The Russian Government has welcomed the proposal of President Joe Biden to the extend the nuclear arms’ treaty before it expires in less than two weeks.
While speaking on the proposal, Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian government was in support of the proposal to extend the treaty, however, the government was waiting to see the full details of the proposal.
The Russian Government said the nuclear treaty extension was prolonged following the changes in conditions made by the Donald Trump’s administration.
In Peskov words: “Certain conditions for the extension have been put forward, and some of them have been absolute unacceptable for us, so let’s see first what the US is offering.”
The Russian government reaction is coming after the United States under the administration of Biden proposed a five-year extension to the treaty that expires on February 5. The nuclear arms reduction treaty is the last remaining non-proliferation treaty between the two nations.
While confirming the proposal on Thursday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the extension was in the interest of the security of the United States. She said, “The president has long been clear that the New Start Treaty is in the national security interest of the United States. This extension makes even more sense when the relationship with Russia is adversarial as it is at this time.
Psaki also noted that the extension of the treaty has no additional conditions so that the two countries can seriously and jointly search for answers to questions of international security and strategic stability.
Psaki further stated that the extension proposal will not hinder the investigation ongoing about the alleged involvement of Russia in the Solar Winds hacking event and the interference in the 2020 US election. She said the investigations will continue and all offenders will be brought to book after the investigation is concluded.
It would be recalled that the nuclear weapon treaty between the United States and Russia was signed in 2010 by the then President of US, Barrack Obama and the then Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev. The purpose of the treaty is to limit the numbers of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles that each country can deploy.
