The New START Treaty entered into force in 2011 and will be renewed for another five years in 2021. The treaty limits the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, as well as the deployment of missiles. missiles and land and submarine bombers capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The two nations, which were constrained by a series of Cold War-era arms control agreements, still account for about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads.
Delegates from Russia attend the meeting to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York City, USA in 2022. Photo: Reuters
A State Department spokesman said: “Russia’s refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important treaty rights and threatens the ability to control nuclear weapons between the United States and China. America and Russia”.
According to the spokesman, Washington is still willing to work with Moscow to fully implement the treaty. This person emphasized: “The New START Treaty is still in the national security interest of the United States.”
The heads of the national security committees in the US Senate, which pass the treaties, said Moscow’s failure to comply would affect future arms treaties.
“It must be made clear that compliance with New START treaty obligations will be critical to Senate review,” said the leaders, including Democratic Senators Bob Menendez, Jack Reed and Mark Warner. any future strategic arms control treaty with Moscow”.
On January 30, Russia said that the New START treaty could expire in 2026 without a replacement treaty, and emphasized that Washington was trying to cause a “strategic defeat” for Moscow in Ukraine.
When asked about the possibility of no nuclear arms control treaty after 2026, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: “This is a completely possible scenario.”
The United States has provided more than $27 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, including more than 1,600 Stinger air defense missile systems, 8,500 Javelin anti-tank missile systems and 1 million 155mm cannon rounds.
According to a new Pew Research Center poll, a growing number of Americans think the world’s No. 1 economy is giving too much aid to Ukraine, with more than a quarter of respondents saying the President’s administration Joe Biden is being too generous.
The new surveys show a significant change from last March, when 42% of those surveyed said they felt the US was still not doing enough for Ukraine.