On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden renewed his condemnation of Russia for suspending a crucial nuclear agreement, but he insisted there was no evidence that Moscow was getting closer to actually using nuclear weapons.
In an interview with ABC News in Poland, Biden expanded on his brief remarks made before meeting with NATO commander Jens Stoltenberg and eastern European leaders in Warsaw. “It’s a big mistake to do that, not very responsible,” Biden said.
The US president continued, “But I don’t read into that that he’s thinking of using nuclear weaponry or anything like that.
During a state of the nation speech on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the New START arms treaty; the decision was ratified by Russian lawmakers on Wednesday.
The two nuclear-armed rivals agreed to reduce the number of nuclear warheads in their arsenal as part of the 2010 agreement, the last surviving nuclear arms control treaty.
Putin’s announcement of the treaty was widely denounced internationally, but the Russian foreign ministry later stated that Moscow would continue to abide by its limitations in a “responsible” manner until its expiration in February 2026.
Without going into further detail, Biden told ABC News that he was “confident that we’ll be able to sort it out.”
Despite describing Russia’s action as “deeply regrettable and irresponsible” on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Washington was still open to discussing the matter.
