Despite Regime s Claims, Chinese Nuclear Arsenal Should Concern the U.S. | Opinion Ryan Tully On 2/9/21 at 6:30 AM EST
For the last two years, the United States has attempted to move past the outdated Cold War construct of bilateral arms control agreements that only apply to the United States and the Russian Federation. Our team, led by Special Presidential Envoy Marshall Billingslea, sought to bring the Chinese into discussions about nuclear arms and stability. Regrettably, the refrain from the Chinese was consistent. Fu Cong, the director general of China s Department of Arms Control, summed it up in an interview: There are only two largest nuclear weapon states, there [is] no third largest nuclear weapon state.. It is more reasonable to put China in the same category as France and [the] U.K.
Biden extends nuclear arms control treaty on Russia s terms Print this article
President Biden agreed to extend an expiring nuclear arms control treaty with Russia, ending a standoff under former President Donald Trump that threatened to sink the pact as the Kremlin resisted U.S. efforts to add restrictions to the Russian arsenal.
“Especially during times of tension, verifiable limits on Russia’s intercontinental-range nuclear weapons are vitally important,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Wednesday announcement.
The five-year extension of the New START treaty stems a cascade of jettisoned arms control agreements between the former Cold War rivals, which U.S. officials blamed on Russian violations.
Russian Embassy admits imprisonment of dissident Alexei Navalny is ‘harsh’ Print this article
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s imprisonment following his recovery from a targeted chemical weapons attack is “harsh,” a Russian Embassy has acknowledged.
“The law is harsh but it is the law,” Moscow’s diplomatic team in Canada tweeted.
That social media post was part of a global effort to defend the independence of the Russian judiciary against a chorus of international rebukes of the dissident’s jailing. Other Russian diplomatic retorts followed the method of accusing other democratic nations of hypocrisy, while Russian President Vladimir Putin’s team denied any interest in the case.
Trying to Box in Biden on Arms Control
Former Trump officials complain that the new president doesn’t want what they failed to achieve.
On Joe Biden’s first full day in the Oval Office, the White House announced its readiness to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, for five years. Former Trump administration officials wasted no time attacking the decision, asserting falsely that their work had provided a basis for achieving something more substantial with the Russians.
These former officials are criticizing the Biden team for failing to aim for what they could not get during four years in office. They seek to set their failed negotiating aspirations as a bar against which to judge and disparage their successors’ work.