Key Highlights
- Matt Korda, associate director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said the expiration of the New START treaty forces both countries to rethink assumptions that have guided nuclear planning for more than a decade.
- "Up until now, both countries have planned their respective nuclear modernization programs based on the assumption that the other country is not going to exceed those central limits," Korda said.
- "Without those central limits … both countries are going to be reassessing their programs to accommodate a more uncertain nuclear future." TRUMP WARNS RUSSIA: US HAS WORLD'S GREATEST NUCLEAR SUBMARINE 'RIGHT OFF THEIR SHORES' Russia had already suspended its participation in New START in 2023, freezing inspections and data exchanges, but the treaty’s expiration eliminates the last legal framework governing the size of the two countries’ nuclear arsenals.
- With no follow-up agreement in place, the administration has insisted it cannot agree to arms control without the cooperation of China.
- "The president has been clear in the past that 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," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
