Key US-Russia nuclear pact difficult to replace – Kremlin

President Donald Trump earlier suggested that the US could let the New START Treaty expire to negotiate a “better” deal

Replacing the New START Treaty between the US and Russia – which expires in just a week – would be extremely difficult and time-consuming, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned. His comments come after US President Donald Trump suggested Washington could let the agreement lapse and seek a new and “better” deal later.

The New START Treaty, which was signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, caps each side at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed launchers, and includes transparency and verification mechanisms. It remains the last legally binding arms control agreement preventing the two nuclear powers from sliding back into a Cold War-style arms race.

In early January, Trump dismissed concerns about the deal’s expiration. “If it expires, it expires,” he told the New York Times. “We’ll just do a better agreement.”

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Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Peskov said Moscow’s stance on the issue was “consistent,” adding: “We continue to wait, but the deadline is close. There has been no response from the United States.” 

Peskov warned that negotiating a replacement “takes a lot of time and is complicated.” Letting the treaty lapse, he said, would create a “serious deficit” in the legal framework governing nuclear arms, undermine global stability, and serve neither Russian nor US interests.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated a stopgap proposal, saying Moscow was ready to continue observing New START’s central numerical limits for one year after February 5, provided the US did the same.

While Trump has not opposed nuclear negotiations in principle, he insisted that the framework should include China. In August, he said that denuclearization talks with Russia and China were “very important,” adding that “Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too.”

China – which is estimated to possess around 600 nuclear warheads – has rejected the push, with its Foreign Ministry calling it “neither reasonable nor realistic” and urging countries with the largest arsenals to shoulder “primary responsibility” for nuclear disarmament.