Russia says again it will stick to nuclear weapons limits set in expired New START treaty if US does

Russia will continue to respect the limits established in the New START recently expired nuclear arms reduction treaty if the United States follows suit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday.

“We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, on our part, announced by our president, will remain in force, but only as long as the United States does not exceed the aforementioned limits,” Lavrov said, addressing the lower house of the Russian parliament.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) was signed in 2010 between the United States and Russia. It limited the number of strategic nuclear warheads both countries could have deployed to 1,550 and included verification measures such as on-site inspections and data exchanges designed to ensure compliance.

The pact was originally set to expire in February 2021, but former President Joe Biden extended it for five years, keeping it in effect until February 2026.

President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia was willing to continue respecting the treaty’s key limits if the United States did the same, and Lavrov’s latest comments reaffirm that position following the pact’s expiration.

According to The News, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said last week that Russia “will maintain its responsible and comprehensive approach to stability when it comes to nuclear weapons. And, of course, it will be guided primarily by its national interests.”

In the United States, the debate continues over the future of strategic arms control.

President Trump has previously argued that any nuclear deal should include China, which has expanded its nuclear arsenal in recent years. However, Beijing has repeatedly rejected calls to join trilateral talks on nuclear arms control, noting that its weapons arsenal is significantly smaller than those of the United States and Russia.

A White House official told News themezone in January that the president would decide on a path forward on nuclear arms control “that he will clarify on his own timeline.”

Last week, the United States and Russia agreed restore formal high-level military communications that were suspended in late 2021, prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But there has been no sign of progress toward a new agreement to regulate the arsenals of the world’s two largest nuclear powers.

Mr. Trump headed the Pentagon in October resume nuclear weapons testing “on equal terms” with other countries’ tests, a move that could end a U.S. hiatus dating back to the end of the Cold War.

“Due to other countries’ testing programs, I have directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on a level playing field,” the president wrote in Truth Social, using his administration’s preferred term for the Defense Department. “That process will begin immediately.”

days later, Putin instructed his government present proposals on the possible resumption of nuclear weapons tests in Russia.

During a meeting with his Security Council, Putin said Russia had acceded to the International Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which prohibits nuclear test explosions, but said that “if the United States or any other state party to the Treaty conducted such tests, Russia would be obliged to take reciprocal measures.”