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The End of Nuclear Treaties That Once Kept the Cold War in Check
The New START treaty caps deployed warheads at 1,550 each for the US and Russia, who together hold nearly 87% of global nuclear arms, but successor talks remain stalled.
- On Feb 5, New START, the last bilateral US–Russia nuclear treaty, is due to expire, creating uncertainty as President Donald Trump has not yet formally responded.
- From 1969 until long after 1991, leaders in Moscow and Washington negotiated Cold War treaties, but Russia's refusal of mutual inspections since 2023 stalls progress amid the war in Ukraine.
- Russia and the United States hold estimated inventories of 5,459 and 5,177 nuclear warheads respectively, together accounting for nearly 87 per cent of global totals, while China has about 600 warheads and the Pentagon projects more than 1,000 by 2030.
- Diplomatic obstacles such as NATO inclusion demands complicate near‑term talks, as Russia insists Britain and France's nuclear forces join negotiations while only Russia and the US have a 24/7 hotline, leaving European capitals without direct crisis lines.
- Experts urge prioritising risk-reduction and confidence-building measures while Vladimir Putin proposed a 12-month adherence in September, but analysts warn this could hinder bringing China into talks on flexible warhead limits.
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New START: the final US-Russia nuclear treaty about to expire
Donald Trump may allow America’s last remaining nuclear arms control treaty with Russia to lapse. “If it expires, it expires,” he told The New York Times of the agreement, which runs out on 5 February.If the New START agreement, signed in 2010, is not renewed or replaced, it would leave the “world’s two largest nuclear powers free to expand their arsenals without limit, for the first time in half a century”, said the paper.What is it?START (Stra…
·Washington, United States
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