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By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it believes the US and Russia are no longer bound by New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two powers, which is set to expire on Thursday.
“In the current circumstances, we assume that the Parties to the New START are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations in the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are in principle free to choose their next steps,” the ministry said in a statement issued on Telegram on Wednesday, the day before the treaty officially expires.
The New START treaty caps the number of nuclear warheads each side can deploy at 1,550 and limits the number of deployed and non-deployed strategic launchers to 800. The Russian ministry’s statement noted that President Vladimir Putin had offered a mutual agreement to maintain those limits for another year to make room for diplomacy to negotiate a new treaty, but the Trump administration hasn’t responded to the proposal.
“However, no formal official response from the United States with regard to the Russian initiative has been received through bilateral channels… It means that our ideas have been deliberately left unanswered,” the ministry said.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who signed the New START with then-US President Barack Obama in 2010, mentioned the end of the treaty on X. “That’s it. For the first time since 1972, Russia (the former USSR) and the US have no treaty limiting strategic nuclear forces. SALT 1, SALT 2, START I, START II, SORT, New START – all in the past,” he said in a post that included a meme that said “winter is coming.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about the treaty’s expiration on Wednesday and said that any arms control must include China, but Beijing has maintained it won’t enter into a trilateral deal unless Washington and Moscow reduce their nuclear stockpile, since China has significantly fewer nuclear weapons.
“China’s position on a trilateral negotiation with the U.S. and Russia on nuclear arms control is clear,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Tuesday. “China’s nuclear strength is by no means at the same level with that of the US It is neither fair nor reasonable to ask China to join the nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage.”
Arms control experts have warned that the expiration of the treaty without a replacement or an agreement on maintaining its limits will likely lead to an increase in the deployment of nuclear weapons and spark a new arms race.
Polling shows that American voters overwhelmingly support the idea of Trump accepting Putin’s offer to maintain the New START limits and want the US and Russia to negotiate a new deal that either maintains those restrictions or results in a reduction of nuclear weapons.
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Dave DeCamp
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.