Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill to extend a key nuclear pact with the United States that is set to expire in days.
Putin signed the New START bill on Friday after it unanimously passed through both chambers of the Russian parliament. While the legislature is required to greenlight the treaty in Russia, Congress does not have to do the same in the U.S. The bill agrees to extend the 2010 deal for an additional five years.
President Biden announced his support for extending New START during a Tuesday phone call with the Russian leader. The agreement, set to expire on Feb. 5, is the last remaining treaty between the two countries that limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and deployed strategic delivery systems.
New START limits each of the world powers to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, with compliance checks in place to ensure fulfillment of the deal.
While a point of agreement, Biden and Putin also discussed several points of contention, with the White House saying that the president reiterated to Putin that the U.S. “will act firmly in defense of our national interests in response to malign actions by Russia.”
In addition to New START, Biden brought up the massive SolarWinds hack, reports that Russia put bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and the treatment of jailed activist Alexei Navalny, a topic White House press secretary Jen Psaki said he “did not hold back” about during the phone call.
