This photo taken from a video distributed on Dec. 9, 2020, by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, shows a rocket launch as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test at the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia. | Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will let the last arms control treaty between Russia and the United States lapse and instead direct his administration to work toward a new one.
The New START treaty, which expired at midnight, was the last safeguard on the superpowers’ nuclear arsenals.
While Trump has called for a new deal to include China, his TruthSocial postrepresents the president’s first public comments on the future of the pact. New START had set limits on the number of bombers, missiles and warheads both sides can deploy.
“Rather than extend “NEW START” (A badly negotiated deal by the United States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future,” he said in the post.
Trump’s comments leave questions about the new U.S. approach to arms control. Russia this year offered the U.S. a plan for a one-year stopgap that would continue the limits, although the deal would have removed the role of inspectors and made it difficult to monitor enforcement. Russia had suspended the treaty in 2023, and canceled inspections and data exchanges.
The Pentagon had been holding meetings for months about a post-New START future, although it was not clear what they discussed.
Negotiating another treaty could prove difficult. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the inclusion of Britain and France, Europe’s only powers with nuclear weapons. And the Pentagon has assessed that China has little interest in curbing its nuclear arsenal in an arms control pact.
POLITICO
