Washington (TDI): Unless a last-minute agreement is reached this Thursday, the world’s final treaty limiting nuclear weapons deployment between the United States and Russia will come to an end.
New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow, traces its roots to decades of Cold War-era agreements. Its expiration will remove formal limits on the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals.
The issue comes amid a broader trend under President Donald Trump, who has emphasized an “America First” approach and shown little hesitation in stepping away from international commitments. In the case of New START, some analysts suggest that delay is due more to inertia than ideology, according to AFP.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a one-year extension of the treaty. At the time, Trump described the idea as “sounding like a good idea” but no substantive steps have followed. Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s ally and Russia’s former president who signed New START with Barack Obama in 2010, recently said that Russia has yet to receive a meaningful response from Washington, though it is allowing time for a reply.
Read More: Russia Presses US on New START Extension Before February Deadline
The White House has indicated that Trump would like to see China included in any future nuclear limits, but no formal negotiations have been reported. Experts note that the administration’s sidelining of career diplomats has complicated the complex diplomacy required to extend such a treaty.
Read More: The New Weapons and the New Arms Race
In October, Trump called for a potential resumption of US nuclear testing for the first time in more than three decades, though it remains uncertain whether this will be carried out.
Meanwhile, Russia has already suspended a key inspection provision of New START in 2023, as relations with the United States deteriorated over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
