MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday it would act “responsibly” if the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with the United States is allowed to expire this week.
The New START treaty, signed in 2010, is due to expire on Thursday unless a last-minute understanding is reached between Moscow and Washington.
Its lapse would formally free both sides from restrictions on deployed nuclear warheads and delivery systems.
Campaigners and arms control experts have warned that allowing the treaty to expire could trigger a new nuclear arms race.
Putin offers restraint
In a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would act “in a measured manner and responsibly” after the treaty expires, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
Ushakov said Russia remained “open to finding ways for dialogue and ensuring strategic stability”.
Putin offered in September to extend the treaty’s limits for one year.
US President Donald Trump said at the time that the proposal “sounds like a good idea”, but the Kremlin says it has received no formal response from Washington.
‘Dangerous’ moment
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the expiry of New START would leave the world in a more dangerous position.
“In just a few days, the world will be left without a fundamental document that limits and controls the strategic arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers,” Peskov told reporters.
He said Russia’s extension proposal remained on the table. “We have not yet received any response from the Americans,” he added.
Putin has said Russia was ready to continue observing the treaty’s numerical limits beyond February, provided the United States did the same.
What New START does
New START caps the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads at 1,550 for each side and limits long-range missiles and bombers. It also allows on-site inspections.
The treaty was signed in 2010 by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama.
It was extended in 2021 for five years under former US President Joe Biden.
Russia suspended inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic and froze its participation in the treaty in 2023, but has continued to adhere voluntarily to its limits.
No arms race
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow would not initiate an arms race but would respond if US actions threatened its security.
“If the Americans opt to deploy weapons systems or elements of their ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence concept in Greenland, this would require military and technical compensatory measures,” Ryabkov said, according to state news agency TASS.
He said Russia would send no further messages to Washington on New START. “The lack of a response is also a response,” he added.
Ryabkov said any revival of strategic security talks would require a major shift in US policy towards Moscow.
International concern
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) urged both countries to honour the treaty’s limits while negotiating a new agreement.
“Without New START, there is a real danger the arms race will accelerate,” ICAN executive director Melissa Parke said, warning of more warheads, more delivery systems and rising global pressure on other nuclear-armed states.
According to POLITICO, the expiration of New START could trigger the first global nuclear arms race since the Cold War.
The outlet reported that the US Defence Department has held internal discussions on a post–New START environment.
“Unless Trump and Putin reach some sort of understanding soon, it’s not unlikely that Russia and the US will start to upload more warheads on their missiles,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told POLITICO.
US stance and allied debate
The White House said Trump would decide the future of nuclear arms control “on his own timeline”.
Trump has downplayed the risks of letting the treaty lapse.
“If it expires, it expires. We’ll just do a better agreement,” he told The New York Times in January.
Trump has said he favours a new deal that includes China, while Putin has said Britain and France should also take part.
European allies are also reassessing their security. POLITICO reported that Germany has begun discussions on a shared European nuclear umbrella, while Sweden has opened talks with France and Britain on closer nuclear cooperation.
Peskov said the expiry of New START would remove the last barrier to unchecked expansion of nuclear arsenals.
“In just a few days, the world will be left without limits and control mechanisms over the strategic arsenals of the two largest nuclear powers,” he said.
