Blinken spoke about the possibility of extending the START Treaty

“I think that we will seek to extend the term of the agreement.

We will address this issue almost immediately after Joseph Biden takes over as president, as the treaty will expire in about 16 days.

I can assure you that we will very quickly begin to discuss this issue, and I can only say that at the moment we will seek to extend the term of the agreement, "- quoted by TASS Blinken.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the statements of Biden and his team give reason to believe that the United States will not "make START a hostage to its ambitions and try to" push through "obviously unrealistic positions of inquiry."

Also, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov assessed the possibility of reaching an agreement on the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START III).

In October 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the United States to extend the current agreement for at least a year without any conditions.