The landmark treaty limiting the number of warheads will expire in February
US President Donald Trump has hinted that he would resume negotiations to maintain the existing restrictions on nuclear weapons with Russia.
The president made his remarks as the New START treaty, which limits the number of warheads and the means of their delivery, is set to expire on February 5, 2026.
“That’s not an agreement you want expiring. We’re starting to work on that,” Trump told reporters outside the White House before a trip to Scotland on Friday, according to Reuters.
“When you take off nuclear restrictions, that’s a big problem,” Trump said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this year that “dialogue between Russia and the US on arms control is necessary, especially concerning strategic stability.” He stressed, however, that it would require “an appropriate level of trust,” which needs to come with the normalization of bilateral ties severed by the Biden administration in 2022.
The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama during a brief period of US-Russian rapprochement known as the “reset.” Relations later deteriorated to historic lows over allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and the conflict in Ukraine.
During Trump’s first term in office, the US withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, which banned ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500–5,500 km, as well as the 1992 Treaty of Open Skies, which allowed for surveillance flights over each other’s territory. Moscow followed suit and accused the US of dismantling the global arms control system.
