- The latest nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia expires on February 5
- However, at the moment, there are no guarantees that the pact, signed back in 2010, will be renewed by the parties.
- Meanwhile, from Moscow they insist that they have already made their offer and it is time for Donald Trump to confirm whether he accepts it or not.
With the New STAR nuclear treaty just weeks away from expiring, Russia said it continues to expect the United States to respond to President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to informally extend for one year the provisions of the only remaining atomic weapons pact between the two countries.
The New STAR, signed in 2010, limits the number of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550 per side. However, it expires on February 5.
In this sense, as we already anticipated on World Stage, although Putin proposed in September that both parties agree for another 12 months to comply with the limits of New START, for now Donald Trump has not formally responded to the offer.
“No, we have not received a response. We are certainly waiting for a response to Putin’s initiative; we consider this a very important issue,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
No negotiations in sight
New START, signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, also sets limits on the strategic weapons each side would use to attack the other’s critical political and military centers in the event of nuclear war.
Trump said a couple of days ago that he wanted to replace New STAR with a more ambitious treaty that included China. But Beijing, whose arsenal is growing rapidly but remains much smaller than those of Moscow and Washington (600 warheads versus the US and Russia’s 10,000 total), says it is unreasonable and unrealistic to ask it to join three-way disarmament talks.
Asked about Trump’s comments on a successor treaty, Peskov said this would be good for everyone, but would involve a “very complex and lengthy process.”
“As for our Chinese friends, their position is well known and we respect it,” he added.
Peskov also reaffirmed Russia’s position that any discussion on stability and strategic security must take into account the nuclear arsenals of the United Kingdom and France.
Problems for the US?
For Washington, letting the treaty expire would mean that Russia would have a free hand to load more warheads and produce new missiles much faster than the United States.
A renewed arms race would therefore strain Pentagon budgets and an industrial base that is already grappling with supply chain and production chain constraints.
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