Set under the New START nuclear arms control
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow will continue to adhere to the limits set under the New START nuclear arms control treaty even after its expiration, as long as the United States adheres to similar restrictions.
The New START treaty formally expired on February 5, leaving the world’s two largest nuclear powers without any binding restrictions on their nuclear arsenals for the first time in more than 50 years.
This development has raised concerns globally about the possibility of an uncontrolled nuclear arms race.
Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to continue following the treaty’s limits for another year if the United States agreed to do the same.
However, Beijing rejected US President Donald Trump’s insistence that any future agreement should include China. Speaking in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, Lavrov said Moscow would maintain its commitment to the treaty’s limits despite the lack of a formal extension.
“The moratorium announced by the president will last until the United States crosses these limits,” Lavrov told lawmakers. “We will act in a responsible and balanced manner, based on an analysis of the U.S.
military policies.” He said, “We think the US is in no rush to leave these borders, and they will be kept for now.”
“We will closely monitor how things are actually unfolding,” Lavrov said. “If our US allies’ intention to maintain some form of cooperation on this is confirmed, we will actively work on a new agreement and consider issues that have been left out of strategic stability agreements.”
comments come after a report by Axios claimed that Russian and US negotiators discussed a possible informal understanding to continue observing the treaty’s limits for at least six months during talks in Abu Dhabi last week
Commenting on the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any extension would have to be formal. “It is difficult to envision any informal expansion of the treaty’s limits in this area,” he said.
he said. Also, Peskov confirmed that future nuclear arms control would be discussed during meetings in Abu Dhabi, where delegations from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States held two days of talks focused on a possible peace agreement with Ukraine.
“There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both sides will take a responsible stance and both sides realise the need to start negotiations on this issue as soon as possible,” Peskov said.
The New START treaty, signed in 2010 by then-US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, was the last in a series of agreements between the two countries aimed at limiting nuclear weapons.
beginning with the SALT I agreement in 1972. Under New START, each country was limited to 1,550 deployed nuclear weapons and no more than 700 deployed missiles and bombers.
The treaty was originally scheduled to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.
The agreement also allows for on-site inspections to ensure compliance. However, inspections were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed. In February 2023,
announced the suspension of Russia’s participation in the treaty, citing tensions with the United States and NATO over the Ukraine conflict.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin said Russia would continue to respect the treaty’s numerical limits. In September,
Putin proposed extending observance of the treaty’s limitations for another year to allow time to negotiate a replacement agreement.
The two nations decided to resume high-level military-to-military communications after talks in Abu Dhabi on February 5, even though the treaty had expired.
The direct link was suspended in 2021 amid deteriorating relations before Russia launched military operations in Ukraine in February 2022.
