Biden administration to seek 5-year extension of nuclear arms treaty with Russia

WASHINGTON, DC — The White House says President Joe Biden has proposed to Russia a five-year extension of a nuclear arms treaty that is otherwise set to expire in February.

Biden proposed the extension even as he asked the intelligence community to look closely into Russia’s cyberattacks, its alleged interference in the 2020 election, the poisoning of an opposition leader and allegations that it offered bounties to the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Russia has said for some time that it would welcome an extension of the New START treaty, which limits the number of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons.

The Trump administration made a late bid to extend the treaty, but its conditions were rejected by Russia.