End of an era as US, Russia prepare to exit final nuclear arms treaty
With Trump showing less interest in extending the New START agreement, the future of nuclear weapon limits is unclear
Come Thursday, barring a last-minute change, the final treaty in the world that restricted nuclear weapon deployment will be over.
New START, the last nuclear treaty between Washington and Moscow after decades of agreements dating to the Cold War, is set to expire, and with it restrictions on the two top nuclear powers.
The expiration comes as President Donald Trump, vowing “America first”, smashes through international agreements that limit the United States, although in the case of New START, the issue may more be inertia than ideology.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in September suggested a one-year extension of New START.
Trump, asked afterwards by a reporter for a reaction while he was boarding his helicopter, said an extension “sounds like a good idea to me”, but little has been heard since.
Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev, who as Russia’s president signed New START with counterpart Barack Obama in 2010, said in a recent interview with the Kommersant newspaper that Russia has received no “substantive reaction” on New START but was still giving time to Trump.