NEW YORK (GZERO MEDIA) - While it is surprising that US President Joe Biden is willing to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is also understandable considering an unravelling arms control framework, says Ivo Daalder, former US Representative to Nato.

Speaking with American political scientist Ian Bremmer, Mr Daalder says that although Mr Biden is most sceptical about Russia of any post-Cold War president, he is also focused on building predictability and stability in Russian-US ties.

The United States and Russia own the biggest share of the world's nuclear weapons. Former President Donald Trump had withdrawn America from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, sparking global concern.

The INF Treaty, prohibits the production or testing of ground-launched cruise missiles with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles (480 to 5470 kilometres) and kept nuclear-tipped cruise missiles off the European continent for three decades, according to a report on CNBC.

"Part of being 'back' is understanding that you need to deal with security threats not just through bigger budgets on the military side and more deterrence, but also dialogue, and where possible, arms control and cooperation on the kinds of issues that could really, really change the world very, very quickly," said Mr Daalder.

At a summit in Geneva last week (June 16), Mr Biden and Mr Putin decided to hold arms control and cyber-security talks and return their respective ambassadors, while agreeing to differ on other issues.

Mr Putin said it was "hard to say" if relations with the United States would improve, but that there was a "glimpse of hope" regarding mutual trust.

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