The United States and Russia came close to the extension of a nuclear pact on Friday that is set to expire soon.

The New START treaty is being seen as a rare chance for attaining a middle ground between the two nuclear-powered states, whose relations have been strained again due to the cyber hack allegations. 

According to the agreement, both countries will be restricted to limit their nuclear warheads to 1,550, which is 30% less than the limit set in 2002, which still has the potential to cause irreversible destruction in the world. 

Russian authorities said they welcome the proposal of extension made by the US but added that it would depend on the details of the offer. 

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“We can only welcome the political will to extend this document,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, but warned that “everything depends on the details of this proposal”.

The comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson came a day after the US authorities said Washington would work for a five-year extension.

Jen Psaki, the new White House press secretary, said, “The efforts to find an agreement were all the more pertinent when “the relationship with Russia is adversarial as it is”.

The generous statement made by the Russian authorities comes after the new US President Joe Biden promised a tougher foreign policy on Russia in his campaign.  

Lawmakers in the US demanded punishment for Russia last year after concluding that Kremlin-backed hackers were behind a sweeping cyber intrusion into government institutions.

The most recent claims added to US intelligence conclusions that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to back Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, including through social media manipulation.

Despite his promise to take a harder line on Putin compared to Trump, Biden’s aides voiced support for reaching an accord with Moscow before his inauguration.

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary-General said, “We should not end up in a situation where we have no limitation whatsoever on nuclear warheads. I don’t see the treaty’s extension as the end, but the beginning of an effort to further strengthen international nuclear arms control. So agreements that cover more weapons and also include more nations like China should be on the agenda in the future.”

In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also hailed the new initiative. His spokesperson said, “The Secretary-General encourages both states to work quickly to complete the necessary procedure for the New Start extension before the February 5 expiration. 

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Talks on the nuclear arms reduction agreement last year had stalled over Trump’s insistence that China also become a party to the pact, even though Beijing — whose nuclear programme is quickly growing — made clear it would not participate.

The Trump administration voiced willingness for a one-year extension ahead of the deadline but talks broke down over US insistence on tougher verification that Russia has frozen its nuclear work.

Putin himself offered Trump a five-year extension, the maximum allowed under the treaty that was signed in 2010 in Prague by Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

Peskov reiterated Friday that while Russia “certainly stands for the preservation of New START,” previous US conditions for an extension “absolutely did not suit us”.

During Trump’s tenure, the United States withdrew from major international accords — the Iran nuclear deal and the Open Skies treaty — and pulled out of a centerpiece arms control agreement with Russia, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty.

Mikhail Gorbachev, a former leader of the Soviet Union, urged both countries to extend the START treaty and reduce their nuclear stockpiles.