Trump Rejects Russian Proposal to Extend Expired Nuclear Arms Limits, Calls for New Treaty

Russia has proposed a voluntary extension of the recently expired limits on the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons, but US President Donald Trump has rejected the offer, instead calling for a new and more comprehensive arms control agreement.

According to reports published on Friday, President Trump dismissed the proposal made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and reiterated his preference for negotiating a new treaty rather than extending the old one.

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday, Trump described the existing New START treaty as “badly negotiated” for the United States and claimed it had been widely violated. He said that instead of extending the expired agreement, both countries should work toward a new, modern, and long-term treaty involving nuclear experts from both sides.

Trump has previously said he wants China to be included in any future nuclear arms agreement, though Beijing has shown little interest in participating.

With the expiration of the New START treaty, there are now no binding limits on the vast nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia, raising fears of a renewed nuclear arms race and increasing global concern over nuclear stability.

Last year, President Putin said Russia was prepared to continue adhering to the treaty’s terms for another year if the United States agreed. Washington, however, did not respond positively, arguing that the treaty restricted its ability to deploy additional missile systems against both Russia and China.

Russia has expressed regret over the treaty’s expiration. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would pursue a “responsible and cautious” approach to nuclear stability, while emphasizing that national interests would remain its top priority.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Washington correspondent Shihab Rattansi reported that US and Russian delegations, who were meeting in Abu Dhabi to discuss the war in Ukraine, also held informal talks on extending the New START treaty for six months. However, under the treaty’s framework, no formal extension is now legally possible.

The report noted that recent tensions involving nuclear-armed states such as India and Pakistan have further heightened concerns about the future of nuclear non-proliferation and arms control agreements. Earlier, Russia’s hints at possible nuclear weapons use in response to Western support for Ukraine had also triggered widespread international alarm.

The original Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed in 1991 between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by then US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limiting each side to a maximum of 1,550 nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. In 2021, US President Joe Biden and President Putin agreed to extend the treaty by five years.