• Tension Joe Biden visits kyiv by surprise: "A year later, Ukraine is on its feet"

  • Biden conflict in Warsaw: "The West does not want to destroy Russia"

US President Joe Biden has described his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin's decision to suspend Russia's obligations under the START III or

New START

nuclear disarmament treaty as a "big mistake".

It is the first time that Biden has reacted to Putin's announcement, an issue that is part of the talks that the US president is holding today in Warsaw with the

countries that are part of the eastern flank of NATO

.

The meeting was joined by the organization's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, and the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, although this country is not a member of the Alliance.

Its inclusion, however, carries great symbolism, as

Moldova borders Ukraine and has a sizeable Russian population

.

Russian troops are present in the breakaway Moldovan territory of Transnistria.

"We cannot allow Russia to continue chipping away at European security," Stoltenberg declared at the start of the meeting.

"We have seen the Russian pattern of aggression for many years. Georgia in 2008, Crimea and Donbas in 2014. We must break the cycle of Russian aggression," Stoltenberg said.

In his meeting with the so-called group of the Bucharest Nine -Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the three Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania-, Biden plans to reassure the United States' commitment to

the security in Europe

.

It is not clear, however, if that commitment will translate into a greater presence of the United States or other European partners on the eastern flank.

new fears

Putin's announcement fuels new fears, because although the war in Ukraine remains within the recognized borders of that country, the suspension of the only nuclear disarmament treaty in force between Moscow and the United States is not good news for the world.


New START limits

the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy to 1,550

.

Technically, the agreement is extended until February 2026, but Putin announced on Tuesday that he would put it on hold until further notice, something that has already been endorsed by both houses of the Russian Parliament.


A hypothetical New START break would mean that the arsenals of the world's two largest nuclear powers

would be unconstrained for the first time since the 1970s.

in the middle of the Cold War.

Signed in 2010 by then-US and Russian presidents

Barack Obama

and Dmitry Medvedev, New START also restricts the number of launch vehicles and systems that Washington and Moscow can have deployed or in reserve, but its cornerstone is the verification regime. that the treaty establishes to ensure that these limits are met.

Specifically, both the United States and Russia can carry out

up to 18 inspections a year of each other's nuclear arsenals with little time for the receiving country to prepare

: technicians give 32-hour notice before arriving and then choose the site they want to examine , which must be respected by the receiving authorities.

A month ago, the United States accused Russia of breaching the treaty by not allowing US technicians to carry out inspections on Russian territory.

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