donald-trump-hints-restarting-russia-nuclear-arms-talks

US President Donald Trump has hinted at resuming talks with Moscow to maintain restrictions on nuclear weapons between the two states, which possess more than 90 per cent of the world’s total nuclear arsenal combined.

 

Trump’s “New START” treaty, which is set to expire on 5 February 2026, limits the number of warheads and their delivery systems.

 

Reports citing Trump outside the White House said, “That’s not an agreement you want expiring. We’re starting to work on that.”

 

“When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a big problem,” Trump added.

 

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also expressed concern over the treaty’s expiration, saying, “Dialogue between Russia and the US on arms control is necessary, especially concerning strategic stability.”

 

He said, “That would require an appropriate level of trust, which needs to come with the normalisation of bilateral ties severed by the Biden administration in 2022.”

 

The New START treaty was signed by the then-Russian and US leadership, aiming to reset ties between the two countries after a brief period of US-Russian rapprochement known as the “reset”.

 

However, relations later deteriorated over allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and the conflict in Ukraine.

 

It was during Donald Trump’s first term that the US withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. This particular treaty restricted ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500–5,500 km, as well as the 1992 Treaty of Open Skies.

 

According to the US State Department, recent exchanges of data between the two sides suggest the Russian Federation has 1,447 deployed strategic warheads.

 

The Russian Federation can deploy more than 1,550 warheads on its modernised ICBMs and SLBMs, as well as heavy bombers, but it is constrained from doing so by New START.

 

Under the New START treaty, which came into force on 1 February 2023, both sides are allowed to conduct 328 on-site inspections, 25,449 notification exchanges, 19 meetings of the Bilateral Consultative Commission, and 42 biannual data exchanges on strategic offensive arms subject to the treaty.

 

The treaty between the two long-time rivals not only guarantees peace but also prevents the possibility of an all-out global nuclear fallout.