Trump wants new long-term nuclear deal with Russia and China

Trump’s remarks rejected a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend the agreement for one additional year.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President Donald Trump on Thursday urged negotiators to draft a new nuclear arms agreement rather than revive limits that had governed US and Russian deployments for more than two decades, after the last remaining pact between the two countries expired.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that New START had been “badly negotiated” and was “being grossly violated,” adding that “we should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized Treaty that can last long into the future.” His comments came hours after the treaty lapsed.

Trump’s remarks rejected a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend the agreement for one additional year.

The treaty had already been extended once, in 2021, when Putin and then-President Joe Biden used its single five-year renewal option.

Signed in 2010, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty took effect in February 2011. It limited both sides to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed delivery systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

It also set a ceiling of 800 deployed and non-deployed launchers and imposed constraints on Russian long-range systems able to reach the United States.

Trump has previously argued that China must be included in any future arrangement, citing the rapid expansion of its arsenal.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it would not take part in such a nuclear arms reduction framework, CNN reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow regretted the treaty’s expiration and remained open to dialogue if Washington responded constructively to Putin’s offer.

He said Russia would maintain a “responsible, thorough approach to stability when it comes to nuclear weapons,” while being guided “primarily by its national interests.”

With no binding limits now in place between the two largest nuclear powers, analysts warn that the lapse raises the risk of renewed competition in strategic weapons deployments.