The administration of US President-elect Joe Biden may actually extend the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START, START III), Anton Morozov, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, told Izvestia on January 20.
The day before, the candidate for the post of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the Biden administration intends to seek an extension of the START Treaty. In turn, the candidate for the post of head of the Pentagon Lloyd Austin said that the extension of START is in the interests of US national security.
“Biden’s approach is more responsible, since the START Treaty, as well as all the other treaties from which the Trump administration emerged, was an important component of the international security architecture that constrained the use of military force in resolving differences in the international arena,” MP Morozov said.
According to him, now there are prerequisites for the resumption of negotiations between the United States and Russia on the extension of the START Treaty. He also allowed the involvement of other states, which are playing an increasing role in international relations.
“I think the Biden administration will make a balanced decision and really, perhaps, will play out the destructive approaches that were implemented by the previous US administration,” the parliamentarian concluded.
Earlier, Jack Sullivan, whom Biden intends to appoint as National Security Assistant, said that the discussion of arms control and the extension of START is in the interests of both Russia and the United States.
The START Treaty will expire in 2021. The document was signed by Russia and the United States in 2010. Moscow has repeatedly called on Washington to extend the treaty, but the United States put forward a number of conditions unacceptable to Russia.
