MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) - Extending the Russian-U.S. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) will help reduce international tensions and help normalize bilateral relations, Federation Council Defense and Security Committee Chairman Viktor Bondarev said.
"We hope that this will help reduce international tensions and normalize both Russian-U.S. relations and the global situation," Bondarev was quoted as saying by his press service.
The senator thus commented on the U.S. administration's decision to seek a five-year extension of the New START treaty.
If this decision is sincere, one can only rejoice and welcome this step, Bondarev said.
"Russia unwaveringly supports peaceful and constructive dialogue, a reconciliation of stances on pressing items on the global agenda, and mutually advantageous decisions on those items based on compromise. Extending New START would meet the interests of both the United States (and the new leader of the White House has declared his intention to be guided by them in the political decision making process) and Russia. We have also been acting in the interests of our homeland and will continue to do so," he said.
If the readiness of the U.S. to extend New START "isn't burdened by any 'hindrances,' additional conditions unacceptable to Russia, we'll say only 'yes,'" Bondarev said.
He noted that Russia initiated the preservation of New START at the previous negotiations, but the former U.S. administration voiced opposite intentions.
"Then, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin proposed a one-year extension (a five-year extension wasn't even mentioned at that point and under those circumstances - the United States was opposed to the very fact of extending this document in its current form) before preparing a more up-to-date edition, considering that a lot has changed in the world since the moment of its conclusion. Anyway, an agreement has to be reached on the issue," Bondarev said.
The parliamentarian believes that Biden has drawn the right conclusions from fair criticism of former President Donald Trump over the militarization of industries, the enlargement of the defense budget, and the dismantling of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and has decided to set an opposite trend toward disarmament.