Psaki said Biden also wanted to support Ukrainian sovereignty and its goal of extending a nuclear arms treaty with Russia for five years.
According to the reading from the Biden government, the two leaders agreed to “work urgently” to extend the nuclear treaty until February 5, when the agreement would expire. The New Strategy for the Reduction of Strategic Weapons limits the deployed nuclear weapons of the two countries to 1,550 each.
“They also agreed to examine strategic stability discussions on a range of arms control and emerging security issues,” the lecture said.
According to the reading, Biden and Putin agreed to be transparent and to communicate consistently.
“His intention was also to make it clear that the United States will certainly act in defense of our national interests in response to malicious actions by Russia,” Psaki told reporters.
Biden’s agenda for his call with Putin has drawn a decisive different tone from that of former President Donald Trump, who has voiced criticism of his relatively soft rhetoric towards Russia, especially in relation to his broader America’s first approach to foreign policy. Trump has regularly sought to undermine widely accepted evidence about the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election, and at one point told reporters he would take the Russian president’s word on the US intelligence community on the issue.
Biden has promised to turn the Trump administration’s page on US-Russia relations and take a stronger stand against the Kremlin.
In April 2018, Trump blamed the weak relations between the US and Russia on Special Council Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Kremlin and Trump’s campaign. The investigation found no conspiracy between Trump and Russia, but found that Russia interfered in a “drastic and systematic manner” in the 2016 election. In Mueller’s report, there is also repeated communication between Trump associates and people who have indicated that they may have harmful information about Hillary Clinton.
On the large-scale intrusion into federal agencies that was uncovered in December – which, according to intelligence agencies, Russia was likely to do – Trump unjustifiably suggested that it could have been China. Biden promised a strong response to the campaign.
“My administration will make cyber security a top priority at every level of government,” Biden said in a statement, “and we will make dealing with this offense a top priority from the moment we enter service.”
After less than a week in office, Biden has now made calls with several leading foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Biden has vowed to “restore” dignified leadership at home and respected leadership on the world stage in the wake of Trump’s foreign policy.