The Biden administration has announced that it will restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia, Foreign Policy reported.

The talks are expected to take place in Cairo in the near future, current and former U.S. officials said.

The talks represent a test of whether the United States and Russia can conduct working-level diplomatic negotiations on high-stakes issues, even as U.S.-made weapons contribute to the mounting Russian death toll on battlefields in Ukraine.

The talks also showcase the Biden administration’s willingness to engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin on certain foreign-policy issues.

The existing arms reduction treaty, New START, caps the number of intercontinental-range nuclear weapons in both Washington’s and Moscow’s arsenals and allows each side to conduct on-site weapons facility inspections in the other country.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has quietly been in contact with his Russian counterparts to minimize the risk of the war spreading beyond Ukraine’s borders, and he warned Russia against using nuclear weapons, according to the Wall Street Journal.