The last nuclear pact between the United States and Russia expires, ending half a century of arms control
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Thursday it regretted the expiration of the latest nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States that left no limits on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century.
Arms control experts say ending the New START Treaty could set the stage for an unrestricted nuclear arms race.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was willing to abide by the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington did the same, but U.S. President Donald Trump has not committed to extending it. He has indicated that he wants China to be part of a new pact, something Beijing has rejected.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Trump has made clear that “to have true arms control in the 21st century, it is impossible to do anything that does not include China because of its vast and rapidly growing arsenals.”
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Putin on Wednesday discussed the expiration of the pact with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, pointing out the lack of response from the United States to his proposal to expand its limits and saying that Russia “will act in a balanced and responsible manner based on a comprehensive analysis of the security situation,” Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow views Thursday’s expiration of the treaty as “negative” and regrets it. He said Russia will maintain its “responsible and comprehensive approach to stability as it relates to nuclear weapons,” adding that it “will of course be guided primarily by its national interests.”
Peskov stressed that “if we receive constructive responses, we will certainly engage in dialogue.”
With the end of the treaty, Moscow “remains ready to take decisive military-technical measures to counter possible additional threats to national security,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
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“At the same time, our country remains open to seeking political-diplomatic ways to comprehensively stabilize the strategic situation on the basis of equal and mutually beneficial dialogue solutions, if appropriate conditions for such cooperation are created,” he said in a statement issued late Wednesday.
Even as New START expires, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday to reestablish a high-level military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior officials from both sides in Abu Dhabi, the US military command in Europe said. The link was suspended in 2021 as relations between Moscow and Washington became increasingly strained before Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
Pact details
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers, deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021, but was extended for five more years.
The pact provided for extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they were paused in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
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In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s involvement, saying Russia could not allow American inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized that it would not withdraw from the pact entirely and pledged to respect its limits on nuclear weapons.
Offering in September to respect New START limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor deal, Putin said the treaty’s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.
New START was the last remaining pact in a long series of agreements between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals, beginning with SALT I in 1972.
Trump wants China in a pact
Trump has indicated he would like to maintain limits on nuclear weapons but wants to involve China in a possible new treaty.
“In fact, I firmly believe that if we’re going to do it, I think China should be a member of the extension,” Trump told the New York Times last month. “China should be part of the agreement.”
In his first term, Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to push for a tripartite nuclear pact involving China. Beijing has opposed any restrictions on its small but growing nuclear arsenal, while urging the United States to resume nuclear talks with Russia.
“China’s nuclear forces are not at all on the same scale as those of the United States and Russia and therefore China will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations at the current stage,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Thursday.
He said China regrets the expiration of New START, calls on the United States to soon resume nuclear dialogue with Russia and respond positively to Moscow’s suggestion that the two sides continue to observe the treaty’s fundamental limits for now.
Peskov reaffirmed Thursday that Moscow respects Beijing’s position. He and other Russian officials have repeatedly argued that any attempt to negotiate a broader nuclear pact rather than a US-Russia deal should also involve the nuclear arsenals of NATO members France and the United Kingdom.
Gun control advocates lamented the end of New START and warned of the looming threat of a new arms race.
“If the Trump administration continues to tighten nuclear arms control diplomacy with Russia and decides to increase the number of nuclear weapons in the strategic arsenal deployed by the United States, it will only lead Russia to follow suit and encourage China to accelerate its ongoing strategic development in an attempt to maintain a retaliatory strategic nuclear strike capability against the United States,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington. “Such a scenario could lead to a dangerous three-way nuclear weapons buildup that would last for years.”
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News writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.
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The News receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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