The first phone call between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin was eagerly awaited.
In the first conversation the two talked about nuclear weapons and Navalny.
Since
January 20
is
Joe Biden *
the 46th President of the United States.
Angela Merkel
and
Joe Biden confirmed
their cooperation in overcoming international challenges in an initial telephone call.
Vladimir Putin *
and
Joe Biden
addressed burning international problems in their first phone call.
Washington DC / Moscow - The first phone call between
Biden
and
Putin
was eagerly awaited.
On Tuesday, the two statesmen discussed a number of international and national issues.
According to the
White House
,
Biden spoke
to
Putin
about the ongoing Russian cyberattacks and the poisoning of Russian opposition politician
Alexei Navalny *
.
There was also talk of extending the “New Start” nuclear disarmament treaty.
Putin and Biden: Navalny and Nuclear Weapons
In addition to the many different conflict topics, the extension of the New Start nuclear disarmament treaty played a central role in the phone call.
Moscow
and
Washington
had already
indicated in
advance that they were
interested in extending the agreement.
Without an extension, the nuclear disarmament treaty would expire in early February.
The expiry of this treaty could have disastrous consequences for international politics.
Because without this treaty there would be no international agreement for the first time in decades that
limits
the existence of strategic
nuclear weapons
.
In the contract, the two contracting parties undertake to reduce their warheads to a maximum of 1,550 and to limit their launch vehicles and heavy bombers to a maximum of 800.
After Trump: Biden could return to normal.
Under
Donald Trump *
, the
USA
has not yet been able to extend the treaty with
Russia
.
Trump's
tenure
was generally marked by a departure from multilateralism and international agreements.
Under
Trump
, other disarmament agreements with Russia expired, including the INF and Open Skies treaties.
One of the main points of conflict was that the
Trump
administration insisted on extending the agreement only insofar as the nuclear and military power
China
would also commit to complying with the treaties - but that never happened.
After
Trump's
resignation from the presidential office, the Russian foreign minister had proposed extending the agreement for five years without any preconditions.
Even
Joe Biden
had made it clear that the contract had an "anchor of strategic stability" between the two countries.
The contract was originally signed in 2010 in Prague between
Barack Obama
and his then counterpart
Dmitri Medvedev
.
Signing still questionable due to Navalny
It is still unclear whether the contract will really be extended until February 5th.
The relationship between
Washington
and
Moscow
has long been considered poisoned and deeply shattered.
The
US
repeatedly accuses
Russia of
interfering
in the
US election campaign
and targeting US companies with targeted cyber attacks.
In addition,
Biden
is said to
have condemned
the harsh actions of the security forces against demonstrators and the imprisonment of the government
critic Alexej Navalny
in the joint phone call
.
Speaking
to journalists
in the
White House
on
Monday,
Biden
said he was
“extremely concerned” about the current measures being taken against opposition groups.
In addition,
Biden
once again
reinforced
the American position regarding the sovereignty of
Ukraine
in the phone call
.
Another difficult topic must have been the reports of Russian bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan.
(phf) Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network.
List of rubric lists: © Alexander Zemlianichenko / dpa
