In a statement posted by Russia’s UN mission, the Russian delegation to the Tenth Review Conference on the NPT questioned the seriousness of President Joe Biden’s proposal to restart arms control talks with Russia. “It was the United States that unilaterally withdrew from the dialogue on strategic stability with Russia citing the developments around Ukraine as a pretext,” the statement said. “The US did this even though the goal of that dialogue was to lay down the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures, i.a. with a view to making new relevant agreements. So it is high time Washington made up its mind, stopped rushing around, and told us frankly what it is that they want – escalate the situation in the area of international security or embark on equal negotiations.”
Also expressing doubts about the seriousness of Biden’s statement was Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the international committee of Russia’s Federation Council. “I think that Biden might have said it either as a diversionary tactic, bearing in mind the absolutely bad relations between our countries, or he did not think it over well enough. So far, I don’t see anything serious in this statement,” he told TASS yesterday.
