Trump hints at his willingness to extend the nuclear arms reduction treaty with Moscow for another year
US President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that he was prepared to continue working on a nuclear arms treaty between Washington and Moscow, which his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had proposed extending for a year.
In response to a White House reporter’s question about his position on Putin’s offer to extend the New START treaty, which limits strategic offensive arms, four months before its expiration on February 5, 2026, Trump said, “It seems like a good idea to me”.
The goal of this treaty is to limit the proliferation of offensive nuclear weapons in both countries while keeping the levels of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and nuclear warheads below the agreed ceiling.
The agreement, signed in 2010, stipulates that each side will deploy 1,550 nuclear warheads and 800 deployed and non-deployed heavy bombers or ballistic missile launchers, in addition to a mutual verification system.
However, the audits have been suspended since Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty two years ago following the war in Ukraine and escalating tensions with the West.
