The last nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia, the New Start agreement, lapsed on Thursday, ending decades of formal limits on nuclear warheads both countries can deploy. The pact’s expiry has raised concerns about a renewed global arms race.
What is the New Start Treaty?
Signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, the New Start treaty capped the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and the missiles and bombers used to deliver them.
Under the agreement, each country was limited to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and no more than 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers.
The treaty also established a verification regime, including data exchanges and on-site inspections, to monitor compliance and reduce the risk of miscalculation. These inspections were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic and were never resumed.
In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Russia could not allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites, citing Washington and NATO allies declaring Moscow’s defeat in the war with Ukraine as their goal. This led both sides to rely on intelligence assessments.
Despite the breakdown in verification, both Washington and Moscow stated they would continue to observe the treaty’s numerical limits until its expiration.
The treaty followed a long history of U.S.-Soviet and later U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control agreements, beginning with the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) in 1972.
Russia had offered to extend the agreement, but did not receive a formal response from the U.S.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the moment as a “grave moment for international peace and security” and urged Washington and Moscow to begin negotiations.
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