US, Russia negotiate on extension of nuclear treaty – Axios
The United States and Russia are close to reaching an agreement on extending the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START).
Axios reported this in an article, citing three sources, Ukrinform says.
According to two of the publication’s sources, the draft plan still requires approval by the leaders of both countries. A third source said that negotiations had been taking place in Abu Dhabi over the past 24 hours but did not confirm that an agreement had been reached.
At the same time, an unnamed U.S. official noted that the treaty will officially expire on February 5 anyway, and its extension will not be legally formalized.
"We agreed with Russia to operate in good faith and to start a discussion about ways it could be updated," he said.
Another source said that in practice this means both sides would agree to adhere to the terms of the treaty for at least six months, during which negotiations on a possible new agreement would take place.
The New START treaty is the last major constraint limiting the nuclear arsenals of the two countries, which together possess about 85% of the world's nuclear warheads.
The treaty, which expires on Thursday, February 5, limits the number of nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia may deploy on submarines, missiles, and bombers, and includes important transparency mechanisms.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin had previously proposed a short-term extension, but Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday expressed regret in a critical statement that its "ideas have been deliberately left unanswered".
The main reason for the White House's skepticism toward extending a new START treaty was that it does not limit China, which has a much smaller nuclear arsenal that is nevertheless growing rapidly.
Beijing, for its part, has shown no interest in joining an agreement that would restrict its nuclear program and has no clear incentives to do so.
As Ukrinform reported, the original START treaty, signed in 1991 by the United States and the Soviet Union, prohibited each side from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads. It was followed by the New START treaty, signed in 2010 in Prague by the United States and Russia. In 2023, Russia suspended its participation in the treaty, though it was believed that both Russia and the United States continued to adhere to its provisions.
The issue of a new treaty was on the agenda during a meeting between Putin and Trump in Alaska last year, but nothing came of it. Both the United States and Russia are currently modernizing their nuclear forces and expanding their strategic capabilities. A new arms race has already begun, media reported.