MOSCOW (AP) \u2014 The last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals\u2026<\/b>
\nThe last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States expired Thursday, removing any caps on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century.
The termination of the New START Treaty could set the stage for what many fear could be an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared readiness to stick to the treaty\u2019s limits for another year if Washington follows suit, but U.S. President Donald Trump has been noncommittal about extending it.
Putin discussed the pact\u2019s expiration with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting Washington hasn\u2019t responded to his proposed extension.
Russia \u201cwill act in a balanced and responsible manner based on thorough analysis of the security situation,\u201d Ushakov said.
Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday night said in a statement that \u201cunder the current circumstances, we assume that the parties to the New START Treaty are no longer bound by any obligations or symmetrical declarations within the context of the Treaty, including its core provisions, and are fundamentally free to choose their next steps.\u201d
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers \u2014 deployed and ready for use. It was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five more years.
The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow\u2019s participation, saying Russia couldn\u2019t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow\u2019s defeat in Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it wasn\u2019t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.
In offering in September to abide by New START\u2019s limits for a year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin said the pact\u2019s expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel nuclear proliferation.
New START followed a long succession of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction pacts. Those have been terminated, as well.
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