Senior Republicans of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Forces Committees of the US House of Representatives Michael McCall and Mike Rogers criticized the administration of the country’s new President Joseph Biden for the decision to extend the Treaty on Measures to Further Reduce and Limit Strategic Offensive Arms (START, unofficially called START III) with Russia for another five years.
McCall and Rogers argue that the extension of the treaty deprives Washington of leverage over Moscow to return to negotiations. In addition, they said that the administration of the new American president missed the opportunity to agree on a more serious version of the new treaty, which would include a strong verification regime and non-strategic nuclear weapons. It is noted that the original agreement does not cover the new systems, writes TASS…
On January 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden held their first telephone conversation. During the conversation, the leaders discussed, in particular, the fate of the START Treaty. After that, the Russian leader submitted to the State Duma a bill on the ratification of START-3. The next day, the State Duma and the Federation Council ratified an agreement to extend the treaty for five years.
On January 27, the Russian leader, during an online speech at Davos week, called the extension of the treaty a step in the right direction.
The ratification was also commented on by the Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, stressing that the extension of the START Treaty is an important achievement in relations between Russia and the United States, which are going through difficult times today.
At the same time, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov noted that there is no envisaged improvement in relations between Moscow and Washington after the extension of START III.
In turn, Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Permanent Chairman of the Russian Federation at the UN, noted that Moscow hopes that the US Congress will promptly ratify the agreement on the extension of the START Treaty.
Russia and the United States signed START on February 5, 2011. Its term expires on February 5, 2021. The new draft law on the extension of the document provides for the extension of its validity for five years – until February 5, 2026.
source https://pledgetimes.com/republicans-in-the-us-congress-opposed-the-extension-of-start-for-five-years/
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