WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday released the following statement on the Biden administration’s announcement of a five year extension of the U.S.-Russia New START nuclear arms control treaty:

“The extension of the New START treaty is good news for U.S. national security and global stability. Without this treaty in place, the U.S. and Russia risked returning to a global nuclear arms race which would cost billions of dollars and require enormous effort to acquire intelligence on Russian nuclear activities which we currently receive automatically under the treaty,” said Murphy. “It’s good to know the United States can, at the same time, be back at the negotiating table with Russia on critical arms control issues, while also calling out Putin’s behavior on the SolarWinds hack, bounties on U.S. troops abroad, interference in Ukraine, and treatment of political opponents like Alexei Navalny. We can hold our adversaries accountable for bad behavior while still working toward common goals that serve our national security interests. This is how good diplomacy should work and President Biden and his team are showing us how.”

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