The Kremlin stated on Friday that Russian and U.S. negotiators had discussed the expiration of the last remaining agreement between the two countries and agreed on the necessity to promptly initiate new arms control talks. This occurred even as the U.S. emphasized the need for China to join a future arms pact and accused Beijing of conducting covert nuclear tests.
The New START treaty ended on Thursday, for the first time in over half a century leaving no caps on the two largest atomic arsenals and fueling concerns.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared his willingness to do the same if Washington followed. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has argued that he wants China to be part of a new treaty, and his administration increased the pressure by accusing Beijing of carrying out nuclear explosive tests. Beijing rejected the allegations and has rebuffed efforts to have it join a nonproliferation deal.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that China should be involved in a potential new nuclear treaty. “An arms control arrangement that does not account for China’s build-up, which Russia is supporting, will undoubtedly make the United States and our allies less safe,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that Russian and U.S. negotiators had discussed the future of nuclear arms control in the United Arab Emirates, where Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. delegations had held two days of talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine.
“There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both parties will take responsible positions and both parties recognize the need to start talks on the issue as soon as possible,” Peskov said.
When asked to comment on a report by Axios claiming that Russian and U.S. negotiators had discussed a possible informal deal to observe the pact’s limits for at least six months, Peskov responded that any such extension could only be formal.
“It’s hard to imagine any informal extension in this sphere,” Peskov said.
The U.S. desires a new deal involving China
Trump has indicated that he would like to maintain limits on nuclear weapons but wants to include China in a potential new treaty.
In his first term, Trump attempted and failed to push for a three-way nuclear pact involving China. Beijing has resisted any restrictions on its smaller but growing nuclear arsenal while urging the U.S. to resume nuclear talks with Russia.
Rubio said the U.S. was “exploring all avenues” to fulfill Trump’s “desire for a world with fewer of these terrible weapons,” but insisted that Washington would not remain passive while Russia and China expand their nuclear forces.
“Since 2020, China has increased its nuclear weapons stockpile from the low 200s to more than 600 and is on track to have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030,” Rubio wrote on Substack.
Thomas DiNanno, a top U.S. diplomat in charge of arms control, said on Friday that the expiration of the last Russia-U.S. nuclear arms pact marks the “end of an era” of what he described as “U.S. unilateral restraint.” He said Trump wants a “better agreement” that would also involve Beijing.
“As we sit here today, China’s entire nuclear arsenal has no limits, no transparency, no declarations, and no controls,” DiNanno told the Conference on Disarmament, a U.N.-backed organization, in Geneva.
DiNanno also accused Beijing of covertly conducting nuclear tests. “Today, I can disclose that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” he said.
DiNanno stated that China’s army “sought to conceal testing by obscuring the nuclear explosions because it recognizes these tests violate test ban commitments.”
This comment follows earlier U.S. statements accusing Beijing of covertly conducting nuclear tests.
China’s Ambassador Shen Jian rejected what he called “false narratives and unfounded accusations by the United States,” saying that “we abide by our commitment to suspend nuclear testing.”
“The U.S.’s continuous exaggeration of China’s nuclear arsenal expansion is essentially aimed at shifting its own responsibility for nuclear disarmament and seeking excuses for promoting nuclear hegemony,” Shen said.
He said that “at this stage, China will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations” because its nuclear capabilities “are not on the same scale as those of the United States or Russia.”
Shen said Beijing regrets the expiration of New START and urged the U.S. to accept Moscow’s offer to adhere to the treaty’s limits and quickly resume nuclear talks with Russia.
New START provisions
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, was the last remaining pact in a long series of agreements between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals, beginning with SALT I in 1972.
New START 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 set to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.
The pact envisioned extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they ceased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, stating that Russia couldn’t permit U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly declared they wanted Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine. At the same time, the Kremlin emphasized that it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact entirely, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.
In September, Putin offered to maintain the New START’s limits for another year to allow both sides time to negotiate a successor agreement.
Even as New START expired, the U.S. and Russia were set 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 became increasingly strained before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
___
Keaten reported from Geneva. Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.