US President Joe Biden on Thursday said that Russian President Vladimir Putin suspending the nuclear arms treaty is a “big mistake”, however, he does not read into the decision as a signal that Putin would consider using nuclear weapons. “It’s a big mistake to do that. Not very responsible. But I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weapons or anything like that,” Biden said, reported Reuters citing an interview with ABC News.
On Tuesday, during his state-of-the-nation address, Putin announced that Russia is suspending its participation in the ‘New START treaty’ – the last major arms control treaty with the US. In his address, Putin also said that Russia should be “prepared to resume nuclear weapons tests if the United States does so”.
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The move came amid the ongoing tensions between the two countries over the Ukrainian war, and also a day after Biden’s unannounced visit to Kyiv expressing his strong support for Ukraine.
The ‘New START treaty’ was restricting the number of nuclear warheads that Russia and the US can deploy. According to the agreement, Russia and the US had agreed to deploy a maximum of 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads and 700 long-range missiles and bombers.
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With Russia suspending its participation, the US could lose access to inspections and monitoring data on the number of deployed Russian nuclear warheads and the land and sea-based vehicles used to launch them.
Notably, the treaty that came into force in 2011, was signed by former US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in 2010.
(With inputs from agencies)