Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump said he wants a new nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia as the New START treaty is set to expire on Thursday.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump argued that instead of extending the existing pact, Washington should pursue a modernized agreement.
“Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” President Trump wrote.
Without New START in place, the world’s two largest nuclear powers would face no binding limits on their atomic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.
“The United States is the most powerful Country in the World,” the president added, crediting his first term with rebuilding the military and modernizing nuclear forces. He also cited the creation of the United States Space Force and claimed he had helped prevent nuclear conflicts between Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel, and Russia and Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year signaled readiness to abide by the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington agreed to do the same. Russian adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin discussed the treaty’s expiration on Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that Moscow has not received a response from Washington to the extension proposal.
Russia “will act in a balanced and responsible manner based on thorough analysis of the security situation,” Ushakov said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said late Wednesday that, under current conditions, it considers the parties to New START “no longer bound by any obligations” under the pact and free to determine their next steps.
New START was signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The treaty limits each side to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and no more than 700 deployed missiles and bombers. Originally set to expire in 2021, it was extended for five additional years.
The agreement also provided for extensive on-site inspections, though those were halted in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed. In February 2023, Putin announced Russia was suspending participation in the treaty, citing objections to U.S. and NATO inspections, while still pledging to observe the numerical limits.
