The final pillar of a series of arms control treaties between the US and Russia will expire in six months.
Trump says he’s sending nuclear submarines after Russia references the nuclear system
President Donald Trump says he is sending two US nuclear submarines to relocate after Dmitry Medvedev referenced the Soviet-era “dead hand” system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown that he is interested in securing a new nuclear weapons control agreement with the United States and will raise interests at the August 15 summit with President Donald Trump.
The world’s last remaining nuclear weapons control treaty limits the US and Russia to maintain only 1,550 long-range nuclear warheads with alerts at any time. It expired in February 2026, but Russia in 2022 suspended, later suspending its council, allowing the US and NATO to test nuclear weapons.
However, in recent weeks, both Putin and Trump have debated the possibility of a successor deal. The nuclear threat has come from Moscow since 2022, when Russia, the main topic of the summit, began a war with Ukraine.
President Putin suggested that the summit, speaking with Kremlin military and civilian officials at a meeting on August 14, could create conditions of long-term peace for our country and the world as a whole, if an agreement is reached in the field of strategic (nuclear) offensive arms control.
Trump told reporters on July 25 that the looming expiration of New Start was a “problem for the world” and expressed his desire to maintain restrictions on the treaty’s development. The president, who had long sought to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons, tried to set up a Tripartite Nuclear Association Association with China and Russia during his first term, failed.
Golden “opportunity”
Top Arms Control negotiation experts told USA Today that the summit represents a major “opportunity” to curb potential arms races before it begins.
Former acting Secretary of State Paul Dean oversaw arms control and led the US delegation to a new start implementing body, but emphasized that treaty enforcement measures also keep the world safer. Dean is currently heading the Global Nuclear Policy Program for the Nonpartisan Nuclear Threat Initiative.
He explained that the treaty requires on-site inspections, data exchange and other measures aimed at ensuring that each side maintains the exact situation of the other’s nuclear forces.
“If you don’t have a (high) level of trust in your daily photographs of what the nuclear force on the other side is, what you really get is the possibility of misunderstanding and miscalculation,” Dean said. “And when it comes to nuclear weapons, misunderstandings and miscalculations can be devastating.”
The United States and Russia (and earlier Soviet Union) maintain a series of nuclear weapons control and verification contracts dating back to the 1972 Strategic Arms Restrictions Treaty.
“Most people living today have never lived in a time when there were no guardrails in the nuclear deterrence relationships of the US Russia or US Soviet,” Dean said. He insisted that “people forget what the risk is.” “The world we live in is more complicated and dangerous than it was in quite a long time,” he said.
The president was able to agree to Anchorage and begin a new process of negotiating a successor deal, but Dean warned that “these are long negotiations and unlikely to be resolved in weeks or months.”
But there could be a quick progress from the summit, Dean said.
“Both sides have been able to step back from the nuclear threat and raise nuclear temperatures. Both sides can recommend themselves in implementing the new starting treaty,” he said. And both parties may agree to respect the restrictions on deployment as negotiations unfold.
Contribution: Reuters
Davis Winkie’s role in covering nuclear threats and national security at USA Today is supported by partnership with Autorider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partner. Funders do not provide editor input.
