U.S. President Donald Trump stated last night that the United States and Russia should not extend the New START nuclear arms treaty, which he described as “poorly negotiated,” but should instead work toward a new agreement in this field.
“Instead of extending ‘New START’ (a poorly negotiated U.S. treaty that, among other things, is being grossly violated), our nuclear experts should work on a new, improved, and modernized agreement that can last for a long time into the future,” Trump said in a post on the social media platform Truth Social.
Trump also claimed in the post that he “prevented nuclear wars worldwide, between Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel, and Russia and Ukraine.”
“The United States is the most powerful country in the world. I completely rebuilt its military during my first term, including new and extensively modernized nuclear weapons. I also added the Space Force, and now we continue to rebuild our military at levels never before seen,” Trump said.
He added that the U.S. Navy will receive warships “100 times more powerful” than those that sailed during World War II.
The New START was the last bilateral treaty regulating the nuclear arsenals of the world’s two largest nuclear powers, the U.S. and Russia, and it expired yesterday after the U.S. showed no interest in renewing it.
The original START treaty, signed in 1991 by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, prohibited either party from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads.
The New START, signed in 2010 by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, came into force on February 5, 2011, and limited the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads for each side to 1,550.
It also established a level of transparency, including data exchanges, notifications, and on-site inspections.
Although Russia suspended the treaty three years ago amid rising tensions over the war in Ukraine, it was generally believed that both countries continued to adhere to its provisions.
The agreement prevented uncontrolled nuclear weapons accumulation and provided the two countries with the largest arsenals measures of transparency to avoid misjudging each other’s intentions.
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Source: Euronews; Foto: AP