Two senior Republicans in Congress have voiced opposition to the Biden administration’s plan to extend the New START treaty for five years outright, saying the United States would squander an opportunity to make changes to the current treaty, including seeking to include China in it.
A day earlier, two senior Biden Administration officials said Biden agreed to extend the New START treaty on Tuesday (Jan. 26) in his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin since taking office as president. Biden and Putin also agreed that Russia and the United States should complete a five-year renewal of the treaty before its expiration date early next month.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ranking Republican Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of the China Working Group, attends a press conference for the release of the China Working Group report on September 30, 2020. (Photo by Yvonne Lee, Voice of America)
Rep. McCaul and Rep. Rogers, who are the Ranking Republican Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services Committees, respectively, said in a joint statement Wednesday that “the Biden Administration is squandering an opportunity to negotiate for a strengthened New START Treaty so that the new treaty covers non-strategic nuclear weapons, new nuclear weapons systems, and a stronger and more effective verification mechanism.”
The statement said the Biden administration still has Time to seek a shorter extension to allow time for more substantive negotiations, and that related negotiations must begin to address China’s increasingly powerful nuclear arsenal.
The recently departed Trump administration had insisted that China be included in any new nuclear arms control treaty. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Special Envoy for Arms Control Billingsley wrote a joint article in early January accusing the Chinese Communist regime of being opaque in developing nuclear weapons and demanding that Beijing join U.S. consultations with Russia on strategic arms reductions. Trump Administration officials say Beijing has for years used the U.S. to develop nuclear weapons at its whim while complying with arms control agreements.
China has refused to join the consultations, saying it is unrealistic at this stage to ask China to participate in nuclear disarmament talks with the United States and Russia.
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed between the United States and Russia in 2010 stipulates that each can deploy no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads. That treaty expired on Feb. 5 of this year.
The State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, quickly approved Wednesday a five-year extension of the treaty.
The extension of the treaty must also be approved by the U.S. Congress. In their statements, Representatives McCaul and Rogers cited the treaty’s role in reducing nuclear tensions between the United States and Russia, but did not indicate whether they would vote against the treaty extension bill when it comes up for a vote.
Recent Comments