Russia says it regrets expiration of last nuclear arms treaty, but Trump
says he wants a new pact
[February 06, 2026]
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Thursday it regretted the expiration of
the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United
States, while U.S. President Donald Trump declared he was against
keeping its limits and wants a better deal.
The pact's termination left no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals
for the first time in more than a half-century, fueling fears of an
unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared his readiness to
stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington followed
suit, but Trump has ignored the offer and argued that he wants China to
be a part of a new pact — something Beijing has rebuffed.
“Rather than extend ‘NEW START’ (A badly negotiated deal by the United
States that, aside from everything else, is being grossly violated), we
should have our Nuclear Experts work on a new, improved, and modernized
Treaty that can last long into the future,” Trump posted on his Truth
Social network.
Putin discussed the pact’s expiration with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on
Wednesday, noting the U.S. failure to respond to his proposal to extend
its limits and saying that Russia “will act in a balanced and
responsible manner based on thorough analysis of the security
situation,” Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow views the treaty's
expiration Thursday “negatively” and regrets it. He said Russia will
maintain its “responsible, thorough approach to stability when it comes
to nuclear weapons,” adding that "of course, it will be guided primarily
by its national interests.”
Peskov emphasized that “if we receive constructive responses, we will
certainly conduct a dialogue.”
With the end of the treaty, Moscow “remains ready to take decisive
military-technical measures to counter potential additional threats to
the national security,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Even as New START expires, the U.S. and Russia agreed Thursday to
reestablish high-level, military-to-military dialogue following a
meeting between senior officials from both sides in Abu Dhabi, the U.S.
military command in Europe said. The link was suspended in 2021 as
relations between Moscow and Washington grew increasingly strained
before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Details of the pact
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 — 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’s participation, saying Russia
couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when
Washington and its NATO allies have openly declared Moscow’s defeat in
Ukraine as their goal. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized it
wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its
caps on nuclear weapons.
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U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin,
Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP
Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
In offering in September to abide by New START’s limits for a year
to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement, Putin
said the treaty's expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel
nuclear proliferation.
New START was the last remaining pact in a long series of agreements
between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals,
starting with the SALT I in 1972.
Trump wants China in a pact
Trump has indicated he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons
but wants to involve China in a potential new treaty.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Trump has
made clear “in order to have true arms control in the 21st century,
it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because
of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile.”
In his first term, Trump tried and failed to push for a three-way
nuclear pact involving China. Beijing has balked at any restrictions
on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal, while urging the U.S. to
resume nuclear talks with Russia.
“China’s nuclear forces are not at all on the same scale as those of
the U.S. and Russia, and thus China will not participate in nuclear
disarmament negotiations at the current stage,” Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Lin Jian said Thursday.
He said China regrets the expiration of New START and calls on the
U.S. to resume nuclear dialogue with Russia soon. Beijing, he said,
urges the U.S, to respond positively to Moscow’s suggestion that the
two sides continue observing the core limits of the treaty for now.
Peskov reaffirmed Thursday that Moscow respects Beijing's position.
He and other Russian officials have repeatedly argued that any
attempt to negotiate a broader nuclear pact instead of a
U.S.-Russian deal should also involve nuclear arsenals of NATO
members France and the U.K.
Arms control advocates bemoaned the end of New START and warned of
the imminent threat of a new arms race.
“If the Trump administration continues to stiff-arm nuclear arms
control diplomacy with Russia and decides to increase the number of
nuclear weapons in the U.S. deployed strategic arsenal, it will only
lead Russia to follow suit and encourage China to accelerate its
ongoing strategic buildup in an attempt to maintain a strategic
nuclear retaliatory strike capability vis-a-vis the United States,”
said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control
Association in Washington. “Such a scenario could lead to a
years-long, dangerous three-way nuclear arms buildup.”
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