Blinken urges Russia to return to New START nuclear treaty

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Russia to reverse its decision and participate in the New START nuclear treaty.

However, Blinken described Russia's military campaign in Ukraine as “a war of aggression,” indicating Washington is not seeking a decrease in tensions with Moscow.

Blinken made the remarks on Thursday as he talked briefly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the G-20 conference of foreign ministers in New Delhi, India.

Moscow has accused Washington of being in non-compliance with its provisions and of trying to undermine Russia's national security. It has conditioned its return to the treaty with Washington listening to Moscow's position.

President Vladimir Putin announced last month Russia’s suspension of the bilateral nuclear arms control treaty under which Russia and the US committed to deploying no more than 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads, which accounts for 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, and a maximum of 700 long-range missiles and bombers.

Blinken called Russia’s decision “irresponsible” and urged the Russian leadership to reverse it.

“Mutual compliance is in the interest of both our countries,” Blinken claimed he told Lavrov. He added, “that no matter what else is happening in the world, in our relationship, the United States is always ready to engage and act on strategic arms control, just as the United States and the Soviet Union did even at the height of the Cold War.”

"It's kind of amazing, but this dunderhead doesn't realize - or he does and it's just beyond his ability to comprehend - that we were never in a shooting war with Russia during the Cold War and we are now," an American journalist and analyist said. 

"And no matter what Blinken or Biden or anyone else wants to believe, the Russians know it. And they can be depended upon to act accordingly when they need to," he added. 

The Kremlin has said that US policy is aimed at undermining Russia's national security, which “directly contradicts the fundamental principles and understandings enshrined in the preamble of the treaty.”

However, Russia has said it is not opposed to resuming participation in the New START should the US policy change.

"The decision to suspend participation in New START can be reversed. To do this, Washington must show the political will and make good-faith efforts for general de-escalation," the Russian foreign ministry has said.

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At a news conference on Thursday in New Delhi, Blinken also said he told Lavrov that Washington would continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes and would push for the war to end through diplomatic terms that Kyiv agrees to.

“End this war of aggression, engage in meaningful diplomacy that can produce a just and durable peace,” Blinken said he had told Lavrov.

But, he noted that “President Putin has demonstrated zero interest in engaging, saying there’s nothing to even talk about unless and until Ukraine accepts and I quote ‘the new territorial reality’.”

Blinken also told the G-20 meeting that Russia’s war with Ukraine could not go unchallenged.

“We must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability,” Blinken said.

Russia does not consider its military campaign in Ukraine a “war of aggression” as the US official has described it. Moscow believes that it is fighting a proxy war in Ukraine imposed on it by the US and its allies which have planned to disintegrate Russia. 

Russia began its “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with a declared aim of “demilitarizing” Donbas, which is made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed republics. 

Since the onset of the conflict between the two countries, the United States and its European allies have unleashed an array of unprecedented sanctions against Russia and poured numerous batches of advanced weapons into Ukraine to help its military fend off the Russian troops, despite repeated warnings by the Kremlin that such measures will only prolong the war.

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