US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have a “business-like and frank” conversation during the first phone call between the two leaders.
The White House and the Kremlin have their version to offer on the maiden call.
The White House said President Biden warned about “election meddling”, while the Kremlin did not mention any points of contention and said the call was “business-like and frank”.
However, both the leaders signalled willingness to renew their “last remaining nuclear deal.”
“President Biden made it clear that the United States will act firmly in defence of its national interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies,” the White House said in a short statement giving no detail.
The White House said that the they also discussed the massive SolarWinds cyber-attack, which has been blamed on Moscow; reports that the Kremlin placed reward on US soldiers in Afghanistan; and the poisoning of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.
The Kremlin said Putin was of the view that the normalisation of relations would be in the interests of both countries and ensure “security and stability in the world.”
They agreed to renew New Start, an Obama-era accord that limits the number of warheads, missiles and launchers in the US-Russian nuclear arsenals.
It was due to expire next month, and former president Trump had refused to sign on.
The 2010 treaty limits each country to 1,550 long-range nuclear warheads, a far lower number than under the previous deal.
Each country is allowed, in total, no more than 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear arms.
