Presidents dealing with multiple crises need all the help they can get. Sometimes, that help comes as simple as building on what is already there.
This is exactly what the Biden administration did yesterday by announcing its intention to extend the New START accord with Russia for another five years.
Barring some miraculous twist of fate, U.S.-Russia relations are highly unlikely to get significantly better over the next four years. There will be no “Reset 2.0,” and Biden doesn’t appear to be interested in the concept anyway. Biden and his staff were rhetorically tough on Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the 2020 campaign, repeatedly telling voters that if elected, he would stand up to Moscow’s nefarious activities.
The Biden White House started formulating its Russia policy right out of the gate, ordering a U.S. intelligence assessment on Russia’s poisoning of opposition campaigner Alexei Navalny, on the Russian intelligence service’s links to the massive SolarWinds hack, and on allegations that the Kremlin provided financial inducements to militants in Afghanistan to target U.S. troops. Presumably, the findings of this assessment will determine how Biden decides to approach Russia.
Even so, mutual antagonism doesn’t have to kill all mutual collaboration, particularly on an issue as important as nuclear weapons. While the Cold War may be long over, the U.S. and Russia still account for approximately 90% of the world’s total nuclear stockpile. New START, an accord signed in 2010 by former President Barack Obama and former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, caps the number of strategic warheads and missile launchers both sides can deploy at any one time. It also gives U.S. and Russian national security officials extensive information and access into one another’s stockpiles. Without that verification, Washington and Moscow would have no alternative but to base their nuclear policies on worst-case assumptions.
While former President Donald Trump has always been interested in an arms control accord with the Russians, his administration dithered for well over a year, viewing New START as a flawed agreement that left out Moscow’s tactical warheads, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and other conventional weaponry. Rather than simply extend New START, Trump believed China should have been part of the treaty, a non-starter for the Chinese, whose own nuclear arsenal is a fraction of Washington and Moscow’s.
Defense hawks won’t like Biden’s decision to sign a clean extension. Former Trump administration officials such as Marshall Billingslea blasted Biden immediately, tweeting that it shows “a stunning lack of negotiating skill.” This is the same Billingslea, mind you, who kept demanding the moon from the Russians, only to run out of time as Moscow stonewalled his position.
Biden has enough problems as it is. He doesn’t need to add another nuclear arms race to the pile. Extending New START helps him to avoid that.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
