Russia says it awaits an answer from the US on New START as nuclear treaty ticks down

Russia on Wednesday said it is still waiting for a formal response from Washington regarding President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to jointly maintain the last remaining Russian-U.S. arms control treaty, New START, which is set to expire in less than two months.

New START, which expires on February 5, limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, as well as the land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers used to deliver them.

In September, Putin offered to voluntarily uphold the treaty’s limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons for one additional year. Former U.S. President Donald Trump called the idea “a good one” in October.

“We have less than 100 days left before the expiry of New START,” said Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council, often seen as the modern-day equivalent of a politburo. “We are waiting for a response,” Shoigu told reporters during a visit to Hanoi. He described Moscow’s proposal as an opportunity to halt the “destructive movement” currently affecting nuclear arms control.

Nuclear Arms Control in Peril

Together, Russia and the U.S. possess more than 10,000 nuclear warheads, accounting for 87% of the global nuclear arsenal. China, with roughly 600 warheads, ranks as the world’s third-largest nuclear power, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Arms control treaties between Moscow and Washington were originally created in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. They aimed to increase transparency about each side’s arsenal, reduce the risk of misunderstanding, and slow the arms race.

Looking Beyond Russia: The Chinese Factor

Today, major nuclear powers are modernizing their arsenals, while Russia and the West have been at strategic odds for more than a decade, partly due to NATO expansion and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Many previous arms control agreements have effectively collapsed, with each side blaming the other.

The new U.S. National Security Strategy under the Trump administration calls for “reestablishing strategic stability with Russia,” a move widely interpreted as a step toward reopening discussions on nuclear arms control.

Rose Gottemoeller, former chief U.S. negotiator for New START, noted in a recent article for The Arms Control Association that continuing the treaty would be beneficial for Washington.

“For the United States, the benefit of this move would be buying more time to decide what to do about the ongoing Chinese buildup without having to worry simultaneously about new Russian deployments,” Gottemoeller said.

-Guy Faulconbridge and Lucy Papachristou/Reuters