US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, committed a “grave error” in suspending Moscow’s participation in the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and the United States.
Biden, who is in Poland for a meeting with allies on the eastern flank of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), commented for the first time on the Russian decision, announced by Putin on Tuesday, condemning the Russian decision to withdraw from START III Treaty on Nuclear Disarmament, also known as New START.
When Biden entered the presidential palace in Warsaw to meet with countries on NATO’s eastern flank, a journalist asked him to comment on Putin’s decision. At first, the president of the United States jokingly said that he “didn’t have time.” However, shortly after, after a pause, he remarked: “big mistake”.
In Tuesday’s State of the Nation address, Putin said Moscow would withdraw from the treaty because of US support for Ukraine and accused Washington and NATO allies of openly working to destroy Russia.
The decision to suspend Russian cooperation with inspections of missiles and warheads in the treaty comes after Moscow in late 2022 canceled negotiations intended to salvage an agreement that both sides accused each other of violating.
This Wednesday, the deputies of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament (Duma) unanimously approved Putin’s proposal, which will come into force after official publication. According to the text of the law, only Russia’s president can decide “in the future” whether Moscow returns to fulfill its obligations under the arms control treaty, the last one in force between Moscow and Washington.
New START was signed in Prague on April 8, 2010 by former US heads of state Barack Obama and Russian Dmitry Medvedev and limited the number of strategic nuclear weapons to a maximum of 1,550 warheads and 700 ballistic systems (ground, sea and air) for each of the powers.
Source: DN
