Biden seeks new nuclear weapons agreement with Russia and China

President Joe Biden on Monday called on China and Russia to work with his administration on nuclear arms reduction efforts amid growing concerns over conflict with those governments and the continued development of Iran's nuclear program.

Biden made his remarks as the United Nations met to review the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement on nuclear arms reduction worldwide.

“I’ve worked on arms control from the earliest days of my career, and the health of the NPT has always rested on meaningful, reciprocal arms limits between the United States and Russian Federation,” Biden said in a statement the Epoch Times obtained. “Even at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union were able to work together to uphold our shared responsibility to ensure strategic stability.”

“My Administration is ready to expeditiously negotiate a new arms control framework to replace New START when it expires in 2026, but negotiation requires a willing partner operating in good faith," he continued, saying that Russia should demonstrate a commitment to peace amid its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, however, balked at Biden's remarks, with a  Foreign Ministry official questioning the seriousness of the statement. “Is this a serious statement or has the White House website been hacked?” the unnamed official asked Reuters.

While Moscow has denied it plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, it has threatened nuclear operations over the proposed expansion of NATO to include Sweden and Finland.

"[I]f Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the land borders of the alliance with the Russian Federation will more than double," said Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev. "Naturally, these boundaries will have to be strengthened." He went on to say such an expansion of the alliance would indicated it would "no longer be possible to talk about any non-nuclear status of the Baltic."

China, meanwhile, has not done much in the way of nuclear saber rattling, but has increasingly become more bellicose in its rhetoric over Taiwan, with propagandists speaking openly of targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan should she even visit the island.

Biden asked the oriental superpower “to engage in talks that will reduce the risk of miscalculation and address destabilizing military dynamics," per the Times.